THE RETURN OF THE FALLEN

BOOK 1

BY

KAI STORMHAVEN

Prologue

Calypso retrieved her tinted glasses from the pocket in the ceiling of her car, making sure to hide the unusual color of her lavender irises. Her brilliant blond hair flowed over her shoulders in shimmering waves as she exited the car. She pulled out a wheeled extendable cart from her trunk and loaded her sound equipment onto it. She wheeled it into the reception desk of the children’s hospital and smiled at the woman behind the counter.

“Oh, hello Calypso,” the woman greeted her with a warm smile. “The kids have been asking about you almost every day for the last week.”

“Hi, Julia. How are they doing?” Calypso asked hopefully, her open honest face enhancing her look of youthful innocence.

“Amazingly well,” Julia replied, beaming at her with kind eyes. “Jared made a complete turn-around since your last visit. He had been given two weeks to live, but he must have had something important to live for, because he suddenly started responding to treatment. He’s going to be leaving tomorrow.”

“That is wonderful to hear!” Calypso exclaimed with a radiant smile. “How is Susan doing? It seems like she was having a rough time last time I visited.”

“Susan and all of the others are doing remarkably well,” Julia answered with a wondering shake of her head. “It’s almost like they collectively decided they were going to get better.”

“Wow, that is great,” Calypso smiled with obvious satisfaction. “Any newcomers?”

“Just two since your last visit a couple weeks ago,” Julia frowned, her face losing some of its light. “Aria is in pretty rough shape. She’s ten years old. She was transferred in from a hospital over in Syracuse because her parents heard about how high the recovery rates are in this region. They don’t think she’ll last more than a few days at most, short of a miracle. She won’t be able to join the other’s for your performance, unfortunately. Adam is the second newcomer. He just turned fourteen and is also doing poorly. He’ll still be able to watch your performance, but he gets tired very easily.”

Calypso stood frowning slightly as she thought. “Would it be possible to play for Aria in her room?”

Julia blinked at the unusual request but then nodded slowly. “We’ll have to talk with the nurse about that, and maybe her parents.” She studied Calypso quietly for several seconds before continuing. “I’ll see if I can find her parents and get permission.”

“That would be wonderful if you could ask them, Julia,” Calypso smiled hopefully, her innocent features making it hard to deny anything.

“Of course, Calypso,” Julia assured her quickly. “You go on ahead to the meeting hall. I’ll send word to you when I hear back.”

“Thank you, Julia,” Calypso breathed gratefully, her angelic face conveying her gratitude more poignantly than words.

Calypso pushed her cart through the hospital until she reached the meeting hall. There were almost a dozen children sitting in a mix of chairs, wheel chairs, and one medical bed. As soon as she entered all heads turned her way.

“Calypso!” several voices cried out excitedly. “You’re here!”

“I thought I was going to miss your performance,” a brown-haired Anita declared happily as she ran up and hugged Calypso tightly. “I’m going home tomorrow!”

“So I heard,” Calypso murmured, squeezing the twelve-year old girl back affectionately.

“Me too!” Delila exclaimed brightly as she waited her turn to hug Calypso.

There was a small chorus of “me too’s” as more of the children lined up to greet her. Calypso smiled contentedly as she made her way through the line, doling out hugs and words of encouragement.

The boy on the medical bed looked curious as he watched her, but she could see the tightness around his eyes as he watched the other children announce their recoveries. Calypso walked over to him with a warm smile on her face.

“Hello, Adam,” Calypso greeted him with a comforting hand on his shoulder. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Calypso.”

Adam mumbled a reply as his face turned bright red. Calypso forced herself not to laugh at the usual reaction she received from teenage boys. She absently pushed a lock of her long blonde hair away from her face as she studied him intently. His eyes had dark circles under them and his face was gaunt. His head was bald, like so many of the other children, and his body emaciated. His aura was a sickly yellow, laced with black and red threads like chains.

Calypso leaned down and gently embraced the blushing boy with a whispered, “let’s get you back on your feet, Adam.”

She stood up and walked over to her cart and began setting up her wireless speakers, pc, and mixer. She arranged them around the room quickly before walking to the front of the room and picking up her large harp. Looking around the room, she noted that there weren’t any adults close enough to see her eyes clearly. She removed her tinted glasses, revealing her lavender eyes. She had discovered that eye contact helped the process work faster.

She took a deep breath and pulled on the metaphysical cord of light connecting her to an etheric realm of energy and light. She had no idea what it was or why she had always felt the connection. Her music acted as a guide for the power, weaving it through her words and intentions.

She started the accompaniment on her laptop and then stood next to her harp. As she started playing, the cord of light flared brighter in her mind. She opened her mouth and began to sing.

As she sang, her lavender eyes glowed with the intensity of her passion, mesmerizing her small audience. The magical light flowing through her body split her voice into multiple harmonies, giving the impression that there were additional singers joining her voice. The surround sound speaker’s main purpose was to explain where the additional voices were coming from as she sang. The sublime tapestry of voices transposed her words into instructions for her young listeners, showing them how to conquer the dark blights in their bodies.

She sang for almost an hour as her young audience soaked up the magical energy her music inspired.

As she finished singing there was a reverent silence in the room as all of the children remained frozen in place. Adam’s eyes were filled with tears as he stared at her with something close to worship in his eyes. The dark circles under his eyes were gone and there was no longer an air of defeat in his countenance. His eyes were bright and energized.

The silence was finally broken by an enthusiastic applause and cheers from her young audience.

Part way through her performance a middle-aged couple had entered the room. Their eyes were wide with awe as they stared at her in admiration.

Putting her tinted glasses back on, she walked over to them and smiled welcomingly. “You must be Aria’s parents.”

They blinked in surprise at the statement.

“Yes,” the man replied with a puzzled crease to his brow. “How did you know?”

“I had asked Julia if I could sing to your daughter,” Calypso explained. “She said she would check with the nurse and parents.”

“Ah,” the man nodded in understanding. Calypso could see the grief and weariness in his eyes.

“Would you allow me to sing to her?” Calypso asked, her expression filled with hope.

“I think Aria would love that,” the woman said with a sad smile. “If I hadn’t seen you play I would have been inclined to say no, but you have such an uplifting theme in your music that I think it would be just the thing for Aria to hear right now.”

“Thank you,” Calypso smiled gratefully.

Aria’s parents felt an unexpected warmth suffuse their hearts as the young musician smiled at them in gratitude. There was something so pure and innocent about the beautiful young women. Seeing her happiness was contagious, making their own heavy hearts suddenly lighter.

Calypso quickly gathered her equipment onto the cart. She spent another five minutes on goodbyes, hugging each of the smiling children lovingly.

“You are such a wonderful person,” Aria’s mother told Calypso fondly as they started walking toward Aria’s room. “Donating your time to bring happiness to these children is truly inspiring. The kids seem to absolutely love you.”

Calypso colored slightly under the praise. “Thank you. These kids need all of the positivity they can get. I’m just grateful the hospital lets me visit with them.”

“Do you compose all of the music you are playing?” Aria’s father asked curiously.

“Yes,” Calypso nodded. “I’ve had a passion for music since I was a little kid. I believe that there is a magical energy in music that can bring a kind of healing of its own to our souls.”

They arrived at a room filled with medical equipment surrounding a bed with a girl that looked like she was on death’s door. Her cheeks were sunken and her eyes blackened. Her bald head was partially covered with a wimple. She looked exhausted. The light in her green eyes was nearly extinguished.

There was another girl sitting in a chair next to the bed. She looked about the same age as Aria. Her own head was covered with a wimple, though she looked much healthier. Dark brown eyes looked at her curiously as she pushed her cart into the room and started placing the speakers around the bed.

“She’s going to perform a song for Aria,” Aria’s father told the girl.

“I’m Calypso,” she greeted the girl with a smile.

“Clarice,” the girl replied shyly.

Clarice’s aura was streaked with red and black threads that threatened to choke her energy lines. She was clearly on the same path as Aria if things didn’t change.

“And you must be Aria,” Calypso said as she walked up to the bed to look down at the sick girl.

Aria smiled tiredly at her. As Calypso studied her aura she nearly wept. Black and red strands wrapped tightly around the shell, almost extinguishing the light.

“I’m going to play something that will hopefully make you feel a little better,” Calypso told Aria warmly. “You look like a fighter. I can see the light still burning in your eyes.”

Aria’s eyes grew slightly brighter as she stared at Calypso. She nodded and Calypso smiled encouragingly.

She opened her laptop and found the song. Making sure to position her back to the parents, she removed her tinted glasses. She pushed play and then stood next to her harp and began to play. As her voice joined the instruments the room grew still as everyone felt the powerful notes grip their souls and demand their attention. Aria sat up straighter in bed, her eyes growing wider in wonder as she heard the beautiful voice echo throughout the room. Calypso locked eyes with Aria, willing the healing energy into the young girl. Aria’s eyes widened as she saw the strange color of Calypso’s eyes.

Her voice split into multiple strands of accompaniment that wove an intricate tale of struggle and hope. As she sang the second verse, she switched targets, making eye contact with Clarice. The story of her song climaxed in victory over impossible odds, ending on a triumphant finale.

Aria’s eyes were shining as she stared at Calypso excitedly. The exhaustion had melted away as she sat up straight and gripped her blanket tightly.

“That was amazing,” Aria whispered in awe. The red and black cords that had been smothering her aura had been shattered, leaving a pulsing white glow that was growing stronger by the second.

Aria’s parents and sister were standing in shock as they stared at their daughter in wonder. She hadn’t looked so alive in months.

Clarice’s eyes were shining just as brightly as Aria’s as she stared at Calypso in wonder. She stood up and walked over to Calypso, her eyes brimming.

“Thank you,” Clarice said thickly, smiling through her tears.

Calypso answered with a hug, squeezing the girl tightly. Clarice gasped as she felt love and joy suffuse her soul. “You’re going to be just fine now,” she whispered into her ear.

After releasing Clarice, she walked over to the bed and hugged Aria as well, receiving another gasp of surprise as Aria was submerged in love and joy. “I knew you were a fighter,” she whispered quietly. “I can’t wait to see your gorgeous red hair all grown out again.”

Aria blinked as Calypso pulled back. “How did you know I have red hair?”

Calypso just smiled, but didn’t reply. She put her tinted glasses back on and retrieved her speakers, then loaded her cart up as they watched her in awe. She waved goodbye with a smile and pushed her cart out of the door. A moment later their mother came out of the room and caught up to her.

“Thank you so much for everything,” she said, her eyes red-rimmed from crying. “I haven’t seen her look so alive in months. I was worried she was giving up.”

“Sometimes the right song can change the world,” Calypso told her gently. “I’ve seen the look in your daughter’s eyes before. She’s going to pull through this, I promise.”

Aria’s mother’s eyes filled with tears again and she impulsively embraced Calypso. She gasped as waves of love and compassion folded around her. “There’s just something about you that makes me believe you are right. I can’t thank you enough.”

“No thanks are necessary,” Calypso replied firmly. “Helping these children is where I find happiness.”

“If there is ever anything you need, anything at all, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us,” Aria’s mother said, holding Calypso’s shoulders at arm’s length. “I mean that.”

Calypso smiled and nodded. “I’ll remember that, Emily.”

Emily held her for a moment longer before releasing her. “Goodbye, Calypso.”

XXXXX

Emily had walked back into the room before she suddenly stopped, her eyes widening. “How did she know my name?”

“What’s that, dear?” her husband, Eric, asked from where he stood next to Aria’s bed.

She stepped back out of the door to ask Calypso, but the hallway was empty. Returning to the room she joined her husband near Aria’s bed.

“She knew my name,” Emily told him with a puzzled crease to her brow. “How did she know my name?”

“She probably saw it on the paperwork somewhere,” Eric suggested with a shrug. “Or maybe one of the staff told her.”

“She knew I had red hair too,” Aria added wonderingly. “How could she have known that?”

“She did?” Emily asked in surprise. “When did she say anything about the color of your hair?”

“When she hugged me,” Aria replied, smiling at the memory. “She whispered that she couldn’t wait to see my beautiful red hair all grown out again. I really liked her hugs.”

“Yeah, I really like her hugs,” Clarice agreed fervently.

“She must know us from somewhere,” Eric decided after a moment of thinking.

“Enough about that,” Emily declared with a probing look at Aria. “How are you feeling? You seem to still be energized more than I’ve seen in months.”

“I’m feeling really good,” Aria said brightly. “I feel like a totally different person.”

Emily studied her daughter’s face closely, noting that the shadows under her eyes were practically gone. Eyes that were resigned and exhausted just twenty minutes ago were now filled with vitality.

“I’m feeling really good too,” Clarice told them from where she sat next to the bed. The black circles that had been under her eyes were completely gone. Emily could almost feel the change in their health as she sensed the rotting entropy of their illness burning away.

“That’s wonderful, Clarice,” Eric exclaimed with a broad grin. “I knew switching hospitals was the right move. They’ve had such a higher recovery rate at this hospital that I knew you two would be on the mend in no time.”

“Do you think Calypso sings here very often?” Aria asked curiously. “Maybe she’s the reason they have such a high recovery rate.”

“You never know,” Eric replied with an indulgent smile. “You could be right.”

Aria shared a look with her stepsister and mom. He clearly didn’t believe that Calypso was the reason for their sudden recovery. Emily gave Aria and Clarice a subtle nod of silent agreement. She vividly remembered the overpowering love she had felt in Calypso’s embrace. Calypso was more than she seemed. Much more.

Chapter 1

15 years later

Aria heard the notification on her phone as YouTube notified her that a new song had been added to her favorite channel. She eagerly unlocked her phone and opened the app to find Notestoremember’s channel with the latest song.

The video started like all of them on the channel did, with a woman in a mask that hid everything but her mouth. The woman stared into the camera silently with her soft lavender eyes. Lightning flashed behind her in stormy skies. A moment later, the music started, splitting into multiple screens as each view showed her on different instruments. The background of each window was different, but they were all some kind of surreal landscape. The virtual backgrounds always changed with the mood of her music, complimenting it perfectly.

The music itself was a supercharged religious experience. The artist hadn’t produced a single song that wasn’t a hit. They had found the perfect blend of the right instruments, drawing heavily from orchestral ensembles mixed with modern rock, and producing a poignant melody that never failed to reach deep into your soul. There was a feeling of transcendence when listening to her music that was both intensely powerful and beautifully sublime. Some people thought she had cracked the code of how to stimulate a kind of mania using music.

She wasn’t just a genius at composing sublime music. She could play just about every instrument with the skill of an expert musician. Whole YouTube channels were dedicated to dissecting her guitar playing technique.

The positive effect of the music was compared to studies showing that classical music stimulated certain areas of the brain. Her music always left people feeling inspired to be better people, regardless of their ideological background. She had climbed the YouTube ranks over the sixteen years of her channel until she was number one, a position she maintained with a comfortable margin.

There were a lot of theories about her eyes. Most people believed that her lavender eyes were contact lenses or digital overlays. Digital forensic experts had weighed in and claimed it wasn’t an overlay, and that it must be contact lenses. There was a large group of people who believed they were her natural eyes, and that she wasn’t human. Her mastery of the instruments and the magic of her compositions were proof to many of her non-human origin.

Aria was in the minority of the population who knew that those were her real eyes. She still remembered with vivid detail the day that Calypso had visited her in the hospital. There was no doubt in her mind that the beautiful woman had saved her life somehow with the music she created.

It had been fifteen years since that life-changing day. At twenty five years old, Aria had graduated high school several years early and had just finished her college courses with a degree in physics a year ago. She was convinced there had to be a way to replicate the magic of Calypso’s music through science. She had hoped to find the link between healing magic and music.

The hospital had been stunned when the doctors had returned to run some tests and complete additional treatment the day after Calypso’s visit, only to find that Aria was completely healthy. They had reviewed the treatments she had undergone previously, convinced that something they had done had to be responsible for her miraculous recovery.

Her sister had similarly recovered from her own struggles with the same cancer within a few days. The two of them had made a pact with each other to never share the identity of Calypso with anyone. It was obvious that their savior had wished to remain anonymous; revealing her identity to the world would be a poor way to repay her for saving their lives.

“Hey Tweedle-dee, you visiting any interesting planets out there in space?” Clarice asked in an amused tone.

Aria blinked as she reigned in her reminiscing thoughts and looked at her roommate. The two of them had forged a friendship of titanium bonds after their recovery. Aria loved Clarice as much or more than she would have loved a biological sister. After graduating college, they had decided to rent an apartment together. Living alone was boring and just a little scary. Having a sister to watch your back was comforting.

She was sitting across from Clarice at the kitchen table. They had just finished playing Catan, one of their favorite games. Clarice had long, straight midnight hair and dark brown eyes. She had one of those perfect pretty girl faces that was frequently smirking, leering, or laughing. She had an overdeveloped sense of humor and reveled in one of her favorite hobbies of making Aria blush. She claimed it was to help align Aria’s facial coloring with her brilliant long red hair, because the gods clearly intended for them to be the same color.

Aria’s own features were similarly captivating, which seemed like a curse sometimes. Too many people didn’t accept that no meant no; it didn’t mean keep trying and maybe I’ll give in eventually. They had both had stalker incidents in their past. As a result, they spent several years learning how to defend themselves once they started college. Plus, they were always there to watch each other’s back.

“Calypso just released a new song,” Aria told her with an eager grin. “I was just getting ready to listen to it, but I got lost going down memory lane.”

“I get lost in thought all of the time,” Clarice noted with a smirk. “It’s unfamiliar territory.”

“It feels like it was only yesterday that we discovered she had a YouTube channel,” Aria mused, absently twirling a long lock of red hair in her fingers. “I can’t believe it has actually been twelve years.”

“I can’t believe she can crank out a new song every week for fifteen years and never get repetitive,” Clarice said with a sense of awe. “I mean, you would think there would be a few duds in there, but every single one is as amazing as the previous songs.”

“I wish we had some recordings of the stuff she played in the hospital,” Aria sighed longingly. “It was a very different style than what she has on her channel. I wonder if she has another channel hiding out there with those songs.”

“I’m not sure why I didn’t think of this before,” Clarice declared, sitting up straight with a triumphant grin. “But I just had a brilliant idea.”

“Oh?” Aria raised an eyebrow. “I’m all ears, your brilliance.”

“Let’s go back to the hospital and see if she still visits sick kids,” Clarice suggested, her eyes eager. “We could actually see her again!”

Aria stared at Clarice blankly for a moment before smacking her palm to her forehead. “How have we never thought of this before?”

“Probably because it’s been fifteen years,” Clarice noted with a shrug. “She must be near forty by now. That’s a long time to be visiting the children’s ward every week.”

Aria frowned as she thought, absently brushing her long red bangs behind one ear. She was pretty sure Calypso had been visiting more than one hospital. After they had returned from the hospital fifteen years ago, her mother had tried to check in on Calypso in an attempt to repay the favor in some small measure. One of the things that had led to them being at that particular hospital was the successful recovery rates for patients there. It had been a regional statistic though, with many of the children’s hospitals within a few hundred miles also having high recovery rates. When her mother had called some of the other hospitals, they had confirmed that a young woman visited every few weeks to play music for the children.

“How are we going to figure out which hospital she is visiting if she is still visiting?” Aria asked pensively. “We can’t just show up at one of the hospitals every night in hopes of running into her. That could take months.”

“Let’s just call them and see if someone still visits to play music,” Clarice said dryly. She leaned back on her chair and kicked her booted feet up onto the table. “You know, extrovert stuff.”

Aria groaned loudly. “That’s so uncomfortable though. Everything we want to know in life should just be available via internet search.”

Clarice was already looking up hospitals on her phone. “You just leave it to me then. I’m not a chicken.”

“Bok bok,” Aria squawked lamely.

“I’m going to start with the one we were at,” Clarice told her as she put her phone on the table and set it to speaker before dialing.

“Yogushi children’s hospital, this is Julia, how may I direct your call?” a woman’s voice answered.

“Hi Julia, I’m trying to find out if there is still a volunteer woman that shows up every couple of weeks to play music for the kids there,” Clarice spoke hopefully. “Do you know who I need to talk with to find out?”

“Ah, yes, you must mean Calypso,” the woman replied with a smile in her voice. “Yes, she is still coming around every two weeks. May I ask what your interest is in Calypso?”

“She sang to us fifteen years ago,” Clarice said, her voice tightly controlled with excitement. She pulled her feet off of the table and leaned closer to the phone. “We’ve been wanting to thank her for a long time now.”

“Oh, that would just be lovely,” Julia gushed enthusiastically. “She’ll probably be out here next Thursday if you would like to speak with her. I think it would be great for her to hear from someone from her past.”

“Thank you so much, Julia,” Clarice said sincerely. “I really appreciate it.”

“No problem at all,” Julia said brightly. “I’ll hope to see you Thursday.”

She hung up the phone and then jumped up and did a little dance, swinging her hips around. “Woot woot, we’re going on a road trip!”

Aria felt stunned. She couldn’t believe Calypso was still visiting so frequently. “She must have no personal life at all. She’s still releasing a song a week on her YouTube channel, which seems like a pretty big production. If she’s also composing everything that she’s playing at the hospitals how does she have time for anything else? Does she even sleep?”

“That’s some seriously selfless behavior,” Clarice agreed fervently.

“I wonder if any of the other patients she healed have tried to visit her,” Aria wondered thoughtfully. “We can’t be the first ones, right?”

“I’m kind of surprised none of the other former patients have collected on the reward people are offering to reveal her real identity,” Clarice said with a frown as she sat back down. “I mean, I know she saved their lives too, but some people are just assholes and would sell their own mothers.”

“Maybe nobody else has made the connection,” Aria suggested doubtfully. She folded her arms and leaned onto the table. “I mean, it seems hard not to make the connection. Her lavender eyes are burned into my brain, but that is the only thing that connects the two together.”

“Well, it is possible we are wrong about her being the owner of the Notestoremember channel,” Clarice pointed out, flipping her long silky black hair behind her back. “I mean, it could totally be someone putting colored contacts in their eyes. Hell, it might even be a former patient trying to imitate her look.”

“No, it’s her,” Aria insisted firmly. “The shape of the mouth and neck are also the same. How many people wear that shade of lipstick?”

“Like I said, it could be a mimic,” Clarice said pointedly. “Another former patient that was inspired to learn how to play all of the instruments and wear the same makeup.”

“Except that her channel’s been up for sixteen years,” Aria disagreed. “She didn’t look older than twenty at most. The math doesn’t add up. She couldn’t have been healing people for very long, and nobody would have been old enough to create the channel that long ago.”

“Oh, you’re going to bring mathmetatics into it, huh?” Clarice squinted at her in an attempt to look belligerent, but it just ended up looking cute. “But I see what you mean. It really must be her. Which means that someone else still should have figured it out in all of this time.”

“Well, let’s ask her when we see her if we are the first to come back to thank her,” Aria suggested. She finally gave in to her itching fingers and walked over to the counter and took the hair brush, then went behind Clarice and started brushing her hair. “Even if we are, I’m still a little worried about someone else leaking her identity. She’s clearly trying to remain anonymous.”

“I wonder why she doesn’t monetize her channel,” Clarice murmured thoughtfully. She leaned her head all of the way back to stare up at Aria as she brushed her hair and smiled gratefully before lifting her head back up. “She would make a fortune. I guess she just doesn’t need the money.”

“That would be my guess,” Aria agreed. “Shall we get ready for a road trip? It’s a good three hours away.”

“I’m so ready for a road trip,” Clarice replied contentedly as Aria continued brushing her hair. “Two hotties, taking the world by storm as they seek mystery and adventure.”

“Something like that,” Aria murmured distractedly as she put all of her focus into brushing Clarice’s glossy black hair. She had been obsessed with brushing Clarice’s and their mother’s hair since their parents met almost eighteen years ago. Clarice didn’t seem to mind.

XXXXX

“Should we hang out in the parking lot and waylay her, or find her inside?” Aria asked as they pulled off of the interstate.

“We should probably wait until she is finished singing,” Clarice answered, pulling her long black hair into a pony tail as she steered with her knee. “After all, she probably has a schedule that we don’t want to disrupt.”

“Good point,” Aria nodded approvingly. “I hope we don’t freak her out. I kind of feel like a stalker.”

“That’s cause we are acting like stalkers,” Clarice pointed out with a suggestive wink. At Aria’s deadpan expression, she sighed and continued. “I feel like she’ll be okay though. From the little I remember, she seemed extremely capable. I think she could probably turn us to stone or something if we threatened her.”

“What, you think she’s a magical elf or something?” Aria asked dryly, her green eyes sparkling.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Clarice nodded confidently. “She’s not human, that’s for sure.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Aria scoffed, a skeptical expression on her face. “She could just be a psychic or something.”

“How’s that any more realistic than an elf?” Clarice demanded critically.

“The idea that a human has tapped into a higher field of mental potential than the rest of us seems a lot more plausible than bringing fantasy creatures into the realm of possibility.”

“Does mental potential include violet eyes?” Clarice asked sardonically, glancing at her pointedly.

Aria remained silent, unable to think of a good reply. She wanted to say that they could have been contacts, but she vividly remembered those lavender orbs staring into her soul. She would be lying to herself to claim they were contact lenses.

“Whatever she is, she seems to have a hell of a lot of compassion,” Clarice said softly, her eyes becoming introspective. “Do you know how much time I’ve spent volunteering to help those in need? None.”

“I’ve seen you give out twenty dollar bills like they were candies to people on the streets,” Aria objected.

“Do you know how much effort it took for me to hand over a piece of paper?” Clarice replied disdainfully, gesticulating for emphasis. “That’s not remotely comparable to someone volunteering their actual time to help others. I keep telling myself that I’m going to try and find a soup kitchen or shelter to volunteer at, but something always comes up and I don’t do it. Calypso does this every other week for one hospital. She gave me another chance at life, and I’m not paying that kindness forward very well.”

Aria nodded grudgingly. “Me either.”

“I say we fix that. Right now,” Clarice declared, her voice full of determination.

“What did you have in mind?” Aria asked curiously. She watched her sister with a fond expression. She had always had a heart of gold. She was the brave kid who would stand up for the underdogs at school, or the good Samaritan stopping behind stalled cars on the highway to offer help.

“We’re both musicians,” Clarice replied thoughtfully. “Pretty damn good musicians too. How many other survivors from these hospitals do you think have become musicians? I’ll bet a good number of them have.”

“Yeah, I could see that,” Aria agreed slowly. Whatever Calypso had done to heal them with music had left a permanent musical mark on their souls. They had both been drawn to music like a bee to nectar. “So what?”

“What if we start reaching out to the other kids that were healed by Calypso and try to arrange a fundraiser with a concert?” Clarice suggested, looking over at Aria excitedly. “What if we rent a large concert hall and put on a fundraiser for the children’s hospitals? We could play the music from Calypso’s YouTube channel. Wouldn’t that be ironic? We would be the only ones who knew that Calypso’s channel has the same composer as the person who healed all of the kids.”

Aria’s first impression was to dismiss the idea out of hand. It would be extremely expensive and require an insane amount of coordination and work. However, as she thought of the prospect of doing something that would potentially help so many children the way they had been helped, the more she warmed to the idea.

“It’s going to be a crazy amount of work,” Aria pointed out hesitantly. “And I’m not sure how we are going to find all of the other kids that were healed like we were.”

“We could start a website for the fundraiser and then do some ad campaigns asking specifically for volunteers who feel like the power of music saved them when they were in a children’s hospital as a kid,” Clarise said, pursing her lips as she thought. “We could word it in a way that would make it obvious to anyone who Calypso saved but would seem unremarkable to everyone else. We could also ask them to help with the expense of the production. If they are like us, I don’t think they will balk at giving something back.”

“Okay, I think I’m kind of liking this idea,” Aria said, a slow smile lighting up her face. “And it would be really fun to play Calypso’s music. I just wish we had some of the music she uses at the hospital.” She turned her head and looked at Clarice in admiration. “Clarice, you’re pretty brilliant.”

“Pretty and brilliant,” Clarice corrected giving Aria a slow, sensual smile and a wink.

Aria blushed, then tried to cover her cheeks as Clarice dissolved into a fit of giggles.

“You are so bad,” Aria accused her, shaking her head in exasperation.

The two of them began planning the logistics of the project as they navigated the final stretch of their journey. It was just getting dark in the Spring skies above Rochester when they arrived.

“I’ve seriously got butterflies in my stomach right now,” Aria confessed as they pulled into the hospital parking lot.

“Yeah, me too,” Clarice tittered nervously. She looked at Aria and her expression became determined. “I guess we better get in there before we lose our nerve.”

Aria nodded reluctantly, forcing herself to get out of the car. They walked into the lobby and found Julia, the receptionist they had spoken to on the phone.

“Hi, Julia,” Clarice greeted the receptionist. “I’m Clarice and this is Aria. We talked to you on the phone about seeing Calypso.”

“Oh, hello Clarice,” Julia smiled welcomingly. “And I even remember you Aria. I had told Calypso that you probably only had a couple of days to live and wouldn’t be able to join the other kids for the performance. She begged me to let her play for you in your room. She’s such a dear.”

Aria felt tears on her cheeks as Julia talked. Knowing Calypso had specifically attempted to visit her in her room after hearing about her terminal condition, she suddenly realized just how close she had come to death. If Calypso had just been content to help the kids that she could reach easily, Aria wouldn’t be here now. The magnitude of the compassion Calypso had shown her made her realize just how much the beautiful healer had done for her.

“I’m sorry,” Aria said thickly, quickly accepting a tissue from Julia. “I never knew she had made me a special case like that.”

“She’s a little angel, our Calypso,” Julia said gently. “She never seems to tire of coming out here to perform her music for the children. Sometimes I think she is the reason we have such a higher success rate with recoveries.”

“I could definitely believe that,” Clarice said fervently.

“She’ll probably arrive in about half an hour if you want to wait for her,” Julia told them.

“We were thinking of talking to her after her performance,” Clarice replied. “We didn’t want to delay her at all.”

“We would love to watch her perform too, if that is okay?” Aria asked hopefully.

“Of course, my dears,” Julia replied with a motherly smile. “If you can just sign this visitor form I can give you a visitor’s pass and you can make your way down to the conference hall.”

They thanked her profusely and quickly filled out the paperwork. As they walked down the hallway, Aria was flooded with memories of her time as a child. She had been sick for so many years that she had forgotten what it was like to feel healthy. Hospitals had become like a second home to her as she spent more and more time receiving treatments that caused severe side-effects. She remembered the embarrassment of losing all of her hair and being ashamed to be seen by other people. Now, it seemed like a distant nightmare that had nearly been forgotten.

“I remember this place,” Clarice said with a grimace. “I almost feel a kind of PTSD being back in a hospital.”

“Me too,” Aria said hoarsely.

Clarice wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her into a comforting sideways embrace as they walked.

“I think this might be why I never came back to see her,” Clarice said with a sigh. “I think I subconsciously avoided the place.”

Aria nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

They arrived at the audience hall and used their visitor cards to gain entry. There were almost two dozen children sitting around the hall, some of them in wheelchairs. The ones that were not in wheelchairs seemed unexpectedly healthy as they roughhoused with each other and darted around the room.

“They seem pretty healthy,” Clarice noted with a raised eyebrow.

“I wonder if those ones were here last time she visited,” Aria said thoughtfully. “Maybe they have already been healed.”

Clarice nodded slowly. “Yeah, they tried to talk mom and dad into keeping us here longer after we were healed to do more tests and continue treatment. Mom seemed to know we were healed and was adamant that we leave.”

“Let’s go sit at the table in the back of the room,” Clarice suggested with a nod at the back corner. “We don’t want to interfere with anything.”

Aria followed her over and sat down, still feeling a sense of dread in one of the places that had caused her so much pain.

“You okay?” Clarice asked, her eyes full of concern.

Aria took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I think so.”

Clarice reached across the table and held her hand comfortingly. “Maybe you’ll feel better after Calypso gets here.”

Aria squeezed her hand gratefully and tried not to think of all of the horrors she had endured as a child.

They waited another ten minutes before the doors opened and Calypso entered, pushing a familiar looking cart. As soon as she entered she was mobbed by excited children. Most of them were telling her that they were leaving because the treatment had worked, and they were going home. Her radiant smile seemed to light up the room with warmth as she observed the excited children.

“Does she still look twenty to you too?” Clarice asked quietly. She was staring at Calypso in fascination.

Aria nodded slightly, staring at her savior in awe. All thoughts of PTSD fled as she stared at the beautiful blonde woman. She really did look exactly the same as she had fifteen years ago, as if she hadn’t aged a day. There was a presence of pure love that surrounded her and permeated the entire room. She was like an angel walking among mortals. She was taller than Aria remembered, at least six feet tall. She had an hourglass figure and wore clothing that accentuated her beautiful figure. She had a white skirt with emblazoned dragons that went just above her knees and a white button up blouse that showed off her generous curves without being trashy. She had white boots that ended just below her knees. The all white look really worked for her, giving her an angelic appearance that didn’t miss being sexy as hell.

After a few minutes of talking with the kids, she looked up and noticed Aria and Clarice. She froze, her expression filled with uncertainty.

“Let’s go let her know she doesn’t need to worry about hiding from us,” Clarice told her with another squeeze of her hand.

They walked up to where Calypso stood near the front of the room, watching them warily.

“Hi, I’m sure you don’t remember us, it’s been so long,” Clarice began, but was interrupted by Calypso.

“Hello Clarice,” Calypso smiled, and it was like the sun rising. “Hello Aria. Your hair is even more beautiful than I had imagined.”

“Hi,” Aria mumbled shyly, her face turning bright red at the compliment.

“Hello, Calypso,” Clarice smiled back at the seemingly ageless musician. “We just wanted to let you know that you don’t need to worry about us. You don’t need the glasses for our sake.”

Calypso studied both of them for a moment, and it was like she was peering into their souls. Whatever she saw must have pleased her. She smiled again, pulling Clarice into a tender embrace for a moment, then doing the same to Aria.

Aria’s face had just started returning to a normal color, but as Calypso hugged her it turned beet red again. Calypso’s body melded to her in ways Aria wasn’t prepared to deal with. She didn’t dare to look at Clarice, knowing her sister would be laughing at her blushing face. She couldn’t believe Calypso could remember their names! She must have visited thousands of children over the last fifteen years. Did she remember all of their names too? All thoughts of names vanished as an explosion of love filled her as Calypso squeezed her tightly. It triggered a recall to that day fifteen years ago when Calypso had hugged her, filling her body with warmth and light.

“So, you figured out my secret?” Calypso said with a resigned sigh. “I guess I’m surprised it took this long for someone to make the connection.”

“You don’t have to worry about us,” Aria assured her quickly. “We would never reveal your secret to anyone else.”

“I know you wouldn’t,” Calypso replied confidently. “Life just has a way of extrapolating events after they happen once. I’m sure there will be more people making the connection soon.”

“Don’t let us keep you from the children,” Clarice said as she noticed the kids eagerly waiting for them to finish talking. “We can talk to you more after you are finished. Do you mind if we watch?”

“Not at all,” Calypso smiled radiantly, filling Aria with warmth. “I would love to have you watch. I never get to see the children after they leave here. It’s wonderful to see you all grown up and healthy.”

Aria walked back to the table in the back of the room with the sense that she had just spoken to an angel. Clarice had a thoughtful expression as she sat down across from Aria.

“Do you still think she’s human?” Clarice asked archly, leaning forward and putting her elbows onto the table.

Aria shook her head with a rueful smile. “I was pretty out of it last time we met. I don’t think I was aware of this benevolent presence saturating the area.”

“She didn’t look any older up close,” Clarice noted, tapping her lips thoughtfully. “She’s got to be in her mid-thirties to early forties at least. She doesn’t look a day over twenty.”

“Yeah, she doesn’t seem to age,” Aria agreed, watching the enigmatic woman as she spoke with the excited children.

The children were beginning to find their seats as Calypso set up her speakers around the room. Aria shared an excited look with Clarice as they waited to hear what Calypso would play for the children.

Just like that day fifteen years ago, Calypso stood with her harp and began to play as her laptop began broadcasting the accompanying instruments. The music was just as beautiful as she remembered, filling her soul with a fire to fight on against the adversity in life. When she began singing it was like an electric shock to her system as the powerful voice told the tale of heroes and victories. Calypso’s large eyes were filled with passion as her voice wove an intricate weave of magical lattice throughout the room. Aria looked around in surprise as she heard the accompanying vocals serenade the room around her. There was no way those additional voices were coming from the speakers. She stared in awe at Calypso as she realized the woman was somehow singing in harmony with herself. The multitude of harmonies penetrated deeply into her soul, filling her with hope and determination. There was so much energy in the air that it should have been buzzing like a high voltage line.

Aria shared a wide-eyed look with Clarice as they listened to the magical music mold reality to her story. The children were completely mesmerized, watching Calypso with a focus that was unnerving. Aria studied the children who were clearly ill. Their faces were slowly transforming from weary resignation to a powerful optimism.

There was a moment after Calypso was finishing her third song where Aria saw the moment when the illness in one of the children was crushed. She could almost feel the toxic cloud of tainted vitality shatter, leaving the child staring in euphoric wonder as the weight of her ravaged body was freed of contamination. The same thing began happening more frequently with the remaining children as Calypso continued singing song after song for almost an hour. By the end of the hour, all of the children were glowing with untainted vitality.

A nurse entered the room and began taking the children back to their rooms. Calypso put her tinted glasses back on and spoke briefly to the nurse. The nurse was all smiles as she gave Calypso a brief hug and continued rounding up the kids.

Calypso quickly packed up her speakers and laptop before pushing her cart over to where Aria and Clarice were waiting.

Aria struggled to stop staring at Calypso with a kind of reverential awe. She had been listening to the life-changing music on Calypso’s YouTube channel for over a decade but seeing her perform in person and work her healing magic was on a whole other level. She felt like she was in the presence of divinity.

“Calypso, that was beyond amazing,” Clarise told the beautiful musician exuberantly. “You are amazing!”

Calypso’s face lit up like a sunset under the praise, and she stutteringly attempted to reply several times before she was able to articulate a response. “Um, thanks.”

“How many hospitals do you visit?” Clarice asked curiously.

“Eight,” Calypso replied solemnly. “I wish I had more time in the day to visit more, but eight is the limit of where I can travel from my house while still having enough time to make new music.”

“Do you always play new songs for them?” Aria asked in amazement. “Doesn’t it work if you play old songs?”

Calypso shook her head, smiling sadly. “It only works with new songs. I’ve tried using songs from previous visits, but it’s like the music’s life has already been spent healing the previous group of children.”

“How in the world do you come up with so much new content?” Clarice asked, looking dumbfounded. “Don’t you ever hit a wall when trying to make unique songs?”

“Not really,” Calypso shrugged. “Music feels like an endless reservoir of potential. It calls out to me each time I start writing a new song. Just think of how many songs exist in the world today. The number of variations possible with all of the instruments and notes available is so large that I could do this for a thousand years and never run out of options.”

“Speaking of doing it for a thousand years…” Clarice said hesitantly. “I couldn’t help noticing that you don’t seem to age. Is that something to do with the music?”

“I don’t?” Calypso asked in surprise.

Clarice shared a look with Aria. Was she unaware of her own appearance?

“You look exactly the same as you did to me fifteen years ago,” Aria told her slowly. “I thought you would at least look like you were in your thirties, but you barely look twenty years old.”

“Really?” Calypso asked in surprise. “I can’t really remember the last time I actually looked into a mirror.”

“How old are you?” Clarice asked hesitantly. “If you don’t mind my asking.”

“What year is it?” Calypso asked, her eyes calculating.

Aria shared another look with Clarice. Who doesn’t know what year it is?

“It’s 2025,” Clarice answered slowly.

“Oh,” Calypso blinked, looking flustered. “Wow, the time really flies, doesn’t it?”

“So I’ve heard,” Clarice agreed carefully. “How far did it fly for you?”

“Pretty far, apparently,” Calypso replied evasively.

“It’s okay,” Aria told her quickly. “You don’t have to tell us, if you don’t want.”

Calypso sighed in resignation as she peered at the two of them with a weighing look. “I suppose you haven’t freaked out about anything else. What’s one more oddity?”

Clarice smiled wryly, nodding her agreement.

“I was born just after World War One, though I’m not sure which year,” Calypso revealed, watching them closely.

Aria’s eyes widened in shock. She must be over a hundred years old!

“You’re not looking too bad, grandma,” Clarice told her with a teasing wink.

Calypso’s anxious face relaxed as she broke into gales of laughter. The sound was like sunlight dancing on water. Even the lights in the room seemed to brighten with that joyous laugh. Her entire face lit up as she laughed, making Aria once again think of an angelic being.

“So did you really not notice a century pass you by?” Aria asked curiously.

Calypso’s lips still twitched as she answered. “My life has been devoted to music for so long that I don’t really pay attention to anything else. When I discovered that I could heal children with my music it became my life’s mission to help as many children as I could. I guess I just didn’t notice how much time was passing. I do remember when computers were invented, and I could start using more than one instrument at a time.”

“Your YouTube channel is certainly evidence of how far you’ve come since the advent of computers,” Clarice noted with an appreciative grin. “I get so excited every time I see a new song drop.”

“You know about my channel?” Calypso asked in shock, her eyes wide.

“Um, yeah?” Clarice replied with a slight frown. “There aren’t a lot of world renowned musicians with lavender eyes. In fact, there’s just one.”

“How did you even find my channel?” Calypso asked in amazement.

Aria shared a disbelieving look with Clarice before turning back to Calypso.

“You have the most popular YouTube channel in the world,” Aria informed her with a puzzled crease to her brow. “Were you unaware of how popular your channel is?”

Calypso looked dumbfounded. “I just use it to upload ideas and test different styles.”

“I’m getting a sense for this theme,” Clarice said with a rueful shake of her head. “Let me guess: you don’t ever watch TV or read news headlines because all of your time is focused on music, am I right?”

“Yeah,” Calypso replied weakly.

“And when you are managing your YouTube channel you are just using a studio app to upload your songs,” Clarice continued, her tone still wry. “And you never look at your channel stats or video comments because you’re using a studio app and never go to your channel in an actual browser.”

Calypso nodded, her eyes showing worry. “If it’s really popular, it is bound to draw attention to my work here.”

“It’s not just really popular,” Aria told her with a grin. “It is literally the most popular channel in the world. People have spent millions of dollars trying to figure out who you are in real life. Media companies are dying to interview you.”

“You could have been a millionaire if you had monetized your channel,” Clarice added with a smirk. “But I guess that’s part of the mystery of your channel. People can’t fathom an artist as famous as you not using sponsors or ads. A lot of people think you must be the daughter of some billionaire who doesn’t care about money.”

“This is bad,” Calypso muttered distractedly, her eyes distant. “I hope it’s not too late to delete the channel.”

“No!” Clarice and Aria shouted at the same time.

Calypso blinked at them, taken aback.

“Your music has inspired and given hope to so many people,” Aria told her urgently. “It would be a dark day for this world if you deleted your channel.”

“So many lives have also been saved by your channel,” Clarice added seriously. “People who had given up on life suddenly finding purpose after hearing your music. You may have saved as many lives with your YouTube channel as you have with your hospital visits.”

Calypso’s eyes widened, accentuating her innocent face. “Really?”

“Really!” Aria and Clarice assured her simultaneously.

“Huh,” Calypso murmured, her eyes introspective. “I wonder if it would work…”

“If what would work?” Clarice prompted expectantly.

“Oh, nothing,” Calypso replied absently. “Just a silly idea.”

“I’m all about silly,” Clarice assured her with a silly grin. “Now come on, give.”

“I was just wondering if any of the healing music would work over YouTube,” Calypso said with a dubious shrug. “I can’t imagine it would, but if my channel is as popular as you say it is, I wonder how many people I could heal remotely if it did work.”

Aria shared a stunned look with Clarice. “Oh my god, that would be the most epic event in history if it worked!”

“Why don’t you think it will work?” Clarice asked Calypso with a frown.

“I feel like I need to be within a certain proximity to a person for it to work,” Calypso answered pensively. “But I’m not sure about that. When I see a person’s aura, I can tell immediately how long it will take for my songs to break the malice binding it. The problem is that I don’t know exactly how I’m healing them. It’s mostly intuition and guesswork. For a while I was certain that I was just giving people directions on how to heal themselves and letting their own consciousness do the rest. Before I start singing, I connect to something, maybe call it light, and then weave the power from that light with my voice.”

Just what is she? Could she really be an angel or alien or something? Aria felt once again that she was in the presence of some kind of divine being.

“Maybe if it was broadcast live?” Clarice suggested contemplatively.

“Maybe,” Calypso replied doubtfully. “I mean, I don’t think it would hurt anything if it failed, so we don’t have anything to lose.”

Aria felt a thrill of excitement as Calypso said “we”. Maybe we can become friends. How cool would that be?

Clarice smiled at her quickly as she also noticed the plural inclusion. Her dark eyes danced with excitement as she looked back and forth between her and Calypso.

“Before I get too sidetracked from our main purpose in coming out here,” Aria said quietly. “I wanted to tell you thank you for saving my life. I don’t think a day has gone by where I haven’t thought about the night you healed me. Julia told us that you even had to plead with my parents to be able to come to my room to sing since I couldn’t come down here. I owe you my life, and I want to be able to do something in return. What can I do to help you in your life or your mission? Anything at all. Don’t you dare say nothing or I’ll have to get creative.”

Calypso’s face was a mixture of shyness and pleasure. She had probably never had one of her survivors come back and thank her.

“You are so very welcome,” Calypso replied warmly, pulling her into a tight embrace. “I’m glad you came back to see me. I always wonder how everyone turns out in life after they leave. You’ll have to tell me all about yourself and what you have done with your life.”

Aria felt like she was filled with warm light as Calypso hugged her. Her powerful presence that exuded love and wellbeing wrapped around Aria like a warm blanket on a cold winter night. Aria just wanted to stay there forever. All too soon, it ended as Calypso gently released her.

“Can I give you our numbers?” Aria asked hopefully. “We would absolutely love to stay in regular contact and help out wherever we can.”

“Sure, I would love that,” Calypso replied enthusiastically. “Let me get a piece of paper and pencil from my cart.”

“You don’t have a cell phone?” Clarice asked in amazement.

“Nope,” Calypso answered her with a shrug. “I’ve never needed one. I have a phone at home though.”

Calypso rifled through her cart until she found a scrap of paper and a pen. She took their numbers down with an excited glow in her eyes.

She’s got to get lonely sometimes, Aria thought sadly. I’ll bet she doesn’t have any friends to relax and socialize with.

“When are you going to your next hospital visit?” Clarice asked curiously. “Maybe we could visit too, if that is okay?”

“We could even drive you there,” Aria offered hopefully. “You must get tired of driving so far when you visit all of these hospitals.”

“I’m going to the next hospital In two days,” Calypso replied, her eyes looking both hopeful and hesitant. “But I would never impose on you like that. I’m totally okay with driving myself but thank you so much for the offer.”

Aria heard the truth, despite Calypso’s words. She was clearly someone who always gave all of themselves and never took back from others. She seemed to have a phobia of accepting help from others for fear of taking advantage of them. Aria had some of those traits herself. She could also tell Calypso was hoping they would see through her façade and insist on taking her. The ageless woman might not have known that she was lonely before, but something seemed to have changed since she met them. Aria could tell Calypso was desperate for some friends.

“Where do you live?” Aria asked flatly. “We are picking you up whether you like it or not.”

Clarice looked startled at Aria’s bluntness but caught on after a wink from Aria.

“Are you sure?” Calypso asked doubtfully. “I’m sure you have better things to do than cart me around.”

“Better things to do than hang out with the most famous person in the world?” Clarice asked in disbelief. “Better things to do than hang out with the angel that saved our lives? No. No we do not have better things to do. Now where do you live?”

Calypso laughed ruefully, her large eyes betraying her exultant joy. “Okay, fine.” She quickly scribbled down her address on a piece of paper and handed it to them. “Here you go. Thank you so much for doing this.”

“No, thank you,” Clarice insisted fervently. “You seem to have some sixth sense about people, so you must know just how much we want to do this.”

Calypso peered at them, her eyes taking on that strange intensity that made it feel like she was looking into their souls. She suddenly smiled brilliantly, instantly raising the ambient light in the room by several million lumens. “Okay, good! I’m really looking forward to seeing you again. I always knew you two were special.”

She gave each of them a long, soul warming hug before saying her farewell. She was positively glowing with happiness as she pushed her cart out the exit.

“Can you believe that just happened?” Aria asked in a voice filled with awe.

“I think I’m in shock,” Clarice replied dreamily. “There were so many crazy revelations today that it feels surreal.”

“I can’t believe she had no idea that her YouTube channel was so popular,” Aria shook her head with a chuckle. “She seems so focused that she has excluded everything else in life from her attention.”

“I wonder what the full story of her life is,” Clarice mused, her expression fascinated. “I wonder if she really didn’t realize how old she was. She must have had some sense of passing time.”

“I think she just didn’t realize how long it was,” Aria responded contemplatively. “The real mystery was that she didn’t know how young she looked. I wonder if she is just insanely absentminded and didn’t notice her face not changing as she aged. Could a person really be so oblivious that they don’t notice that their face is eternally young?”

“And those hugs!” Clarice breathed in ecstasy. “I’ve never felt anything so divine. I never wanted it to end. It felt like my soul was wrapped in a warm blanket made of love.”

“Oh my god, the hugs,” Aria agreed rapturously. “We need to figure out how she does that. Maybe there is a trick to it.”

“I think it’s because she is an angel,” Clarice said, her tone serious. “Either that, or a lifetime of dedicating herself to helping other people left an aura of love so strong that it radiates out of her.”

“She also mentioned seeing aura’s,” Aria pointed out, pursing her lips. “She sees aura’s and makes a connection to some kind of light source as part of her healing power. Maybe she is an angel.”

“Just not the religious sort,” Clarice clarified with a sardonic grin. “But aren’t angels known for being in heavenly choirs and playing music?”

“She claimed that even she didn’t know how she did what she does,” Aria noted with a frown. “I think an angel would be aware of their nature.”

“Maybe she’s an angel with amnesia?” Clarice suggested dryly.

Aria rolled her eyes. “Yeah, cause angels can have amnesia.”

“Well, we’re talking about mythical beings,” Clarice replied with an airy toss of her head. “So, we can make up any rules we want.”

“I just had an interesting thought,” Aria murmured with a contemplative frown.

“Oh yeah?” Clarice asked with an arched eyebrow. “What’s that?”

“We call angels mythical beings, but where did the myth originate?” Aria asked, her eyes sparkling. “What if Calypso isn’t the first of her kind and the idea of angels arose from someone like her thousands of years ago? Maybe the myth has an actual basis in historical fact. They aren’t necessarily winged servants of some misogynistic bearded guy that hangs out in the clouds, but they are musical creatures that are associated with light, love, compassion, and healing miracles.”

Clarice’s mouth opened to object, but then she paused and closed her mouth with a thoughtful expression. “Hmm…that’s actually an interesting argument. If we hadn’t seen the things we saw today, I would have been laughing hysterically at the thought of us having a serious discussion about this.”

A nurse poked her head into the room and gave a small start when she realized it was occupied.

“Sorry, I didn’t realize this room was being used,” The nurse apologized.

“No, you’re fine, we were just leaving,” Clarice told her quickly. “We just got lost in conversation and didn’t notice how late it was getting.”

The two of them made their way back to the hospital lobby to leave but were stopped by Julia’s voice.

“Aria and Clarice,” Julia called out to them. “I just wanted to thank you so much for coming in to see Calypso. I haven’t ever seen her as happy as she was on her way out. She is so excited to meet up with you two again.”

“Trust me, we are the grateful ones here,” Clarice told Julia brightly. “It was so good to see her and tell her how much what she did for us meant.”

“That’s just wonderful,” the motherly receptionist said happily. “I’m glad everything worked out so well. You two have a wonderful night.”

Chapter 2

Aria frowned as she saw the top post on reddit. She glanced over to Clarice, who was driving them back home from the hospital. “This doesn’t look good.”

“What?” Clarice asked curiously.

“Some internet sleuth has figured out that Calypso is Notestoremember,” Aria said tensely as she read the post. “Let me read it to you.”

I’ve discovered the identity of Notestoremember…sort of. To start with, I had a cousin who was in the hospital with a terminal illness. There was a young woman named Calypso who regularly visited his hospital to put on a small performance for all of the kids there. He said the night she sang to them his terminal illness vanished. The doctors kept him in the hospital for another week to do some tests to try and figure out if he was really better, and if so, how he got that way. The same musician who was there the night he recovered made another appearance a week later. This time, my cousin recorded some of the performance on his phone. After watching his video, I was amazed at the beautiful music this young woman composed. I decided to do some digging, and I found out she visits over a half a dozen children hospitals in the region. The hospitals she visits have a higher patient recovery rate than any other hospital in the nation, and by a huge margin. The recovery rates are so high that people will move their children all the way across the nation to get what they think is superior care.

I decided to interview more of the children who have recovered from these hospitals, and there was one overarching theme in every case. After Calypso put on her performance the patients would recover within a few hours. I spoke with dozens of former patients, and it was the same story every time.

So, now on to matching this mysterious musical healer up with the owner of the Notestoremember YouTube channel. After studying the video my cousin took of Calypso, I noticed she had the exact same violet eyes as Notestoremember. She also had matching lips, chin, and jaw, according to a facial recognition service I used. She even had the same color of lipstick.

I also analyzed the hands as she played the instruments, and they were scarily similar. I had a forensics AI compare the hands, and they were a match.

During my investigation I also discovered that Calypso has been visiting these hospitals for more than twenty-five years. As you can see in the video of Calypso, she doesn’t look a day over twenty years old. You will also notice that her eyes are significantly larger than normal human eyes.

Now we know what Notestoremember really looks like beneath her mask. However, we still don’t know who she is, since Calypso appears to be a pseudonym. The hospital doesn’t have any other name on record for her either.

“Oh no,” Clarice gasped as Aria finished reading it. “We have to warn Calypso before the media descends on her.”

“At least they don’t have her real name,” Aria said with a sigh. “We need to warn her not to go to the hospital in two days. There are going to be an insane number of reporters and fans filling up the hospitals.”

“What are the odds that this came out on the day that we visited her?” Clarice asked with frustration loud in her voice. “Just when we were going to get to spend more time with her too.”

“She even said she expected more people to figure it out,” Aria remembered, squinting as she recalled the beautiful woman’s comment. “She said life just has a way of extrapolating events after they happen once and that she was sure there would be more people making the connection soon.”

“What is she going to do?” Clarice wondered in a worried tone. “This has been her life’s mission for over a hundred years. She’s probably going to have an existential crisis or something if she can’t go to the hospitals to help children anymore.”

“Oh shit!” Aria swore in consternation. “We need to go to her house right now.”

“What, why?” Clarice asked warily.

“They revealed what she looked like,” Aria said, anger boiling inside her at the idiot who had revealed her identity. “If she stops to get gas, buy food, or even get out to walk around, people are going to recognize her now. Someone will almost definitely follow her home and reveal her location to the world.”

Clarice got off on the next exit. “Okay, get her place up on the map and let’s get over there.”

They quickly rerouted their destination and began driving again. Aria felt a tight knot of worry in her stomach as she thought of all of the bad things that could happen to their oblivious little angel if the world found out who she was. The more she thought about it the more distraught she became.

“We need to get her somewhere else away from her home,” Aria warned tightly. “It won’t take long for someone to track her down. She’s not human. You know what they’ll probably do to her if they catch her.”

Clarice blanched. “Oh my god, I didn’t even think about the damn government. She would probably be seen as an alien or something.”

“Exactly,” Aria nodded, nervously wringing her hands. “She’ll probably get locked up in a lab somewhere and nobody will ever see her again.”

Clarice increased her speed, tickets be damned. It took them another hour to get to her house. Calypso was just pulling in ahead of them when they arrived, thanks to Clarice’s excessive speeding. She parked the car in the driveway as Calypso pulled into her garage. Aria jumped out of the car and ran into the garage, knowing she probably looked batshit crazy.

Calypso looked out her window at Aria with a questioning expression that turned to concern when she saw how distraught Aria was.

“What’s the matter, Aria?” Calypso asked gently as she exited her car.

“Somebody found out that you are NOTESTOREMEMBER,” Aria blurted anxiously. “They also found out about your healing abilities and blabbed it all over the internet, so everyone knows what you look like now.”

Calypso’s face fell. “Oh, that’s a shame.”

“It’s more serious than that, Calypso,” Aria told her urgently. “The things you can do, your physical appearance; we are worried the government will come after you too.”

“Why would they?” Calypso asked in puzzlement.

“They’ll probably think you are an alien or something,” Clarice explained as she joined them in the garage. “Even if they just think you are a human, they’ll want to put you in a lab to study so that they can figure out how you do the things you do.”

“Oh,” Calypso said quietly. “Yeah, I see what you mean.”

“We’ve got to get you out of here,” Aria told her hurriedly. “It won’t take them long to figure out where you live. Please, come with us. We’ll keep you hidden until we can figure something else out.”

Aria eyes filled with tears as her fear of harm befalling Calypso flooded her mind.

Calypso stared into her terrified eyes, then pulled her into a comforting embrace. “Shhh,” Calypso murmured comfortingly. “It’s okay.”

Aria was enveloped by an overpowering sense of love as Calypso held her tightly. She felt the fear burning away as the strength of Calypso’s love overwhelmed every other feeling. She clung to Calypso, trying to hang on to the sense of calm. Calypso just held her there for several minutes as she regained her composure.

“Better?” Calypso whispered gently.

“Yeah,” Aria replied, taking a long, shuddering breath.

“Okay, let’s start packing,” Calypso said with a smile. “I haven’t moved in a long time, this will be exciting.”

Aria giggled in relief and amusement at the unexpected silver lining Calypso had found.

“I’ll go get a moving truck,” Clarice told them, her lips also twitching. “How big should it be?”

“No need to worry about that,” Calypso replied easily. “I’ll just pay a moving company to come pack it all up and put it in storage until we figure out where I can go. We can just pack some essentials and take the cars.”

“Doesn’t that cost a lot of money?” Clarice asked doubtfully.

“I had a trust fund from my parents that I invested into an oil company when I was about fourteen,” Calypso replied matter-of-factly. “It turned out to be a good investment over time. At least, I think it has. I haven’t run out of money yet.”

“Are you an oil baron?” Aria asked suspiciously. “Don’t tell me the theory that you were a billionaire ended up being right.”

“Oil baron?” Calypso frowned at the term. “I’m not sure what that is. I’m not really sure how much money I have. I typically just go to the bank every Spring and withdraw two hundred thousand dollars. The bank manager told me that was the interest in my savings account, so I wouldn’t need to actually pull any of my money out.”

“Yep, they were true,” Clarice snickered in amusement. “Sounds like somewhere between fifteen and fifty million dollars, depending on your interest rate.”

“Clarice, the number cruncher,” Aria commented wryly.

Calypso didn’t pack very much. Aside from her clothes, she packed a few small instruments, including a beautiful violin that was clearly an antique. She also grabbed some shepherd’s pipes, and a small harp.

“Your car is going to be registered in your name, so as soon as they find your name they will be able to identify your car,” Aria noted with concern. “Would you be okay with leaving your car and just driving with us?”

“I don’t want to be a burden-,” Calypso began, but was cut off immediately by Aria.

“Good,” Aria interrupted with a smirk. “That’s settled then. Let’s get out of here. I’ll look up a moving company while we drive so we can get your stuff out of there as quickly as possible.”

Aria sat in the back seat next to Calypso with her laptop so they could organize the moving company. They had another two hours of drive time. It was 3am and Aria was beginning to feel the toll of the long day.

They scheduled a call with the moving company for the next day and then closed the laptop, leaving the back of the car dark.

“Do you need me to drive?” Aria asked Clarice, trying and failing to keep the fatigue out of her voice.

“I’m good, Tweedle-Dee,” Clarice assured her with a wink in the rearview mirror. “You get some sleep.”

“No, I’m good,” Aria replied quickly, then yawned widely.

“Sure you are,” Clarice laughed, her eyes twinkling in the rearview mirror as she looked back at her. “I guess you’re just trying to catch flies then, eh?”

Another yawn was her only reply.

Calypso was watching the two of them fondly, her large, violet eyes devoid of any fatigue.

“You should get some sleep,” Calypso told her kindly. “You look exhausted.”

“Aren’t you tired?” Aria asked sleepily.

“I don’t really get tired,” Calypso answered wistfully.

“Like, ever?” Clarice asked disbelievingly.

“Yeah,” Calypso nodded. “Sometimes I think it would be nice to be able to shutdown and experience oblivion for a while. My connection to light keeps me from ever getting tired though.”

“Wow, I’m not sure if I feel bad for you or if I’m envious,” Aria mumbled as her head began bobbing tiredly.

“Shhh…” Calypso shushed her quietly, gently pulling her down to lay in her lap. “Sleep now.”

“If I must,” Aria mumbled.

Calypso began to hum a melody that lulled her down gently into a deep slumber. Laying in Calypso’s lap, she felt the now familiar blanket of love that was Calypso’s aura completely envelop her. She smiled contentedly as the tender warmth of Calypso’s heart radiated throughout her soul.

XXXXX

Aria awoke to the feel of fingers gently brushing her hair. She opened her eyes, feeling as if she had slept for twelve hours. She slowly sat up as the front car door opened.

“Are we there already?” Aria asked in surprise.

Clarice looked back at her curiously, noting how alert she looked. “Yeah, we’re home. You look peppy. Sleep well?”

“I feel like I slept all night,” Aria replied vibrantly. She looked at Calypso. “Did you do something to recharge me or something?”

“Maybe?” Calypso answered uncertainly. “I was humming a song that made me think of renewal and rest while you slept. It seemed like your aura was absorbing energy from it for a little while.”

“Well, thank you,” Aria told her gratefully. “I feel much better now.”

Calypso smiled her angelic smile and squeezed Aria’s hand. “I’m glad I could help.”

“Let’s go brainstorm and get a better lay of the land,” Aria told her. She looked at Clarice. “You go get some sleep.”

Clarice nodded, her eyes finally showing her fatigue. They exited the car and went up into their apartment. Aria was thankful that it was so early in the morning so that none of her neighbors would see Calypso on her way to their apartment.

Clarice went to bed as Aria showed Calypso around the apartment. “Here’s the kitchen, where we keep a pretty good stock of fresh foods. Are you hungry?”

Calypso flushed, avoiding Aria’s eyes. “I don’t really eat food.”

“What do you do to it then?” Aria asked dryly.

Calypso laughed that golden laugh and the blush faded. “I just never get hungry. I think I’m getting some kind of nourishment from this bond of light.”

“That must save a lot of money,” Aria noted enviously. Inside, her mind was goggling. She doesn’t eat or sleep? This angel theory is getting less crazy by the minute.

“I never really thought about it,” Calypso murmured thoughtfully. “But yeah, I guess that could get expensive.”

“Let me show you the guest bedroom,” Aria said faintly, leading her to the other end of the apartment. “I know you don’t sleep, but you’ll have a place for some privacy.”

There was a queen-sized bed, a desk, and a bookshelf in the room. Calypso’s large, violet eyes were bright and excited as Aria took her around the apartment. The presence of her aura had filled their apartment when she had entered it, saturating the area with a sense of love and compassion. Aria could tell she was ecstatic to not be alone anymore. She was a being that seemed to thrive on helping others. Being alone for who knew how long must have been lonely for someone so gregarious.

“We have a few instruments too,” Aria informed her as they walked into the living room. There was a variety of electric and acoustic guitars on stands around the room. A large keyboard sat against one wall with a computer screen in front of it. A large harp sat in a corner of the room, with some small percussive instruments nearby.

Calypso immediately went to the harp, her face lighting up as if she was meeting up with an old friend. “Do you mind if I play it?”

“I would love for you to play it,” Aria replied fervently.

Calypso began plucking a few strings as she tested the tone. She smiled, clearly pleased with the harp’s sound. She closed her eyes and began plucking out a melody that sent chills down Aria’s spine. Calypso began singing softly as she played, her voice splitting into a multitude of voices. Aria barely dared to breathe for fear of defiling the beautiful sounds serenading the room. Hearing Calypso play in person made her YouTube compositions sound lifeless in comparison. The air in the room felt alive with emotion as her song wove a tale of gratitude and appreciation. Her expressive voice radiated emotion and her large eyes almost glowed with passion as her whole heart went into the song.

When she finished, Aria realized her cheeks were wet with tears. There was so much power in the sentiment of her songs that it triggered an unconscious emotional reaction.

“Wow, that was beyond beautiful,” Aria told her, her voice thick with respect. “Thank you.”

Calypso sighed contentedly as she fondly stroked the frame of the harp like an old friend. “I guess I was feeling a little anxious without my instruments. This made me feel much better.”

“It made me feel much better,” Aria told her playfully.

Calypso laughed, brightening the room with her mirth. “I can’t tell you how happy I am to be with the two of you. I guess I never noticed how lonely it had gotten on my own.”

“I can only imagine,” Aria replied gently, studying the beautiful musician fondly. “I’m so glad we came back out to see you so that we had this opportunity to be with you. I know it sounds so cliché, but I feel like we have an angel in our home.”

Calypso’s face lit up like a sunset, but her eyes were soft as she smiled shyly back at Aria. The room seemed to glow with her powerful emotions, filling it with love and appreciation.

“I’m going to check online and see what’s going on,” Aria informed her lightly. “Just make yourself comfortable. This is your home now too.”

“Thank you,” Calypso replied, her eyes shining with silver tears. Aria stared for a moment, convinced that her eyes were playing tricks on her. She walked over to Calypso curiously and gently reached up to brush the tear away from her cheek. As she stared at the quicksilver tear on her hand, it evaporated into mist. Her hand where the tear had touched began glowing softly and she suddenly felt a powerful surge of rejuvenation flush through her system.

“You are always full of more surprises,” Aria told her wonderingly.

Calypso blinked after watching her quicksilver tear evaporate. “I don’t think I’ve ever cried. Is that what tears are supposed to do?”

“Maybe for angels,” Aria replied with an affectionate smile.

Aria walked over to her laptop near the couch and opened it up to see if the reddit post had led to any more breakthroughs. As she looked at the main news page, her heart sank. The main headline for the day was titled, NOTESTOREMEMBER’S IDENTITY FINALLY REVEALED, AND IT’S EVEN STRANGER THAN YOU COULD HAVE IMAGINED.

Being careful to keep her outward calm, Aria read through the article.

After a redditor managed to tie the identity of Notestoremember to a person going by the name of Calypso, internet sleuths quickly uncovered more details about the enigmatic owner of the most popular channel on YouTube. It was revealed that Calypso regularly visited eight different children’s hospitals, leaving behind a mystery as children with terminal illnesses suddenly became healthy following her performances. We were able to interview some of the staff at the hospital, some of whom already believed that Calypso may have been responsible for the miraculous recoveries. Receptionist Julia Rinker revealed that she had suspected the young woman of healing patients for several years. When asked about her seemingly ageless appearance, Julia clammed up, worried that all of this attention would have a detrimental effect on Calypso’s life and her mission of healing the children there. She may have good reason to worry, as the hospitals are quickly being swarmed by thousands of fans of the Notestoremember channel, hoping for a peak at one of the most famous musical figures of our age.

We were also told that her home was found by one of her overenthusiastic fans, who broke into it and filmed the inside, revealing all of the instruments used to create the music for her channel. There is no word on where Calypso is currently residing, as she wasn’t at her home, despite her car being there. She may have gone into hiding after discovering that her identity was revealed.

Many internet denizens are angry with the YouTuber who revealed Notestoremember’s identity, calling it a gross invasion of privacy. If she really is responsible for healing children at the hospitals, then his actions would also potentially result in the deaths of children who would have been healed by her magical music. He has offered a public apology, claiming he had not thought far enough ahead to the potential consequences of his actions.

The world waits with bated breath to find out if the Notestoremember channel will go dark, and children’s hospitals quiet without her music.

Aria was proud of herself for maintaining an outward façade of calm as her stomach roiled inside after reading the article. Unfortunately, she had forgotten Calypso’s ability to see beyond the physical.

“What’s the matter?” Calypso asked her with concern.

“We got you out of there just in time,” Aria sighed, feeling a sense of gratitude to the universe for small mercies.

“Oh,” Calypso replied in understanding, her expression unreadable. She walked over and sat down on the couch next to Aria. “Do you mind if I read it?”

Aria reluctantly handed her laptop over, concern written on her face.

Calypso quickly read the article. Her eyes widened as she read, enhancing her look of vulnerable innocence. When she finished, she wordlessly handed the laptop back to Aria.

“We can totally disguise you when we go out so that nobody will recognize you,” Aria told her reassuringly. “Maybe a hat, some sunglasses, and a change in the color of your makeup.”

“Makeup?” Calypso asked in puzzlement. “I don’t wear makeup.”

Aria stared at Calypso’s red lips and dark eyelids nonplussed. She hesitantly reached out and gently touched Calypso’s lips. They definitely didn’t have any makeup on them.

Calypso’s face lit up like a sunset at the intimate gesture, and she stared at Aria uncertainly.

“I’m sorry, I just had to check,” Aria said apologetically. “Did you get your lips and eyelids tattooed or something?”

“No, that is just their natural pigment,” Calypso answered awkwardly, still blushing slightly.

“Wow, that’s just not fair!” Aria complained enviously.

Calypso saw the twinkle in Aria’s eyes and her lips curved up at the corners. “I know I’ve already said this, but I’m so glad to have met you. I think I really needed something new to happen in my life.”

Aria impulsively put her arm around Calypso and hugged her. “Words can’t express how happy meeting you has made me.”

Calypso put her arm around Aria and rested her head on Aria’s head with a contented smile. Aria thought about Clarice’s comment about Calypso being an amnesiac angel and had to consider that she might be on to something.

Aria was interrupted from her reverie by the sound of her phone ringing. She picked it up, noting it was only 6am. She frowned when she saw her mother’s caller ID, wondering what she could possibly want this early.

Reluctantly, she released Calypso with a sigh and answered her phone, immediately missing the metaphysical blanket of love associated with Calypso hugs.

“Hey Mom, is everything okay?” she asked concernedly.

“I could ask you the same thing,” her mother asked, relief in her voice. “I saw your location over at the hospital where all of the craziness is unfolding and wanted to make sure you were okay. When I checked your travel history and saw where you had gone, I started freaking out.”

Aria snorted a laugh. She and Clarice had always shared their location and location history with their parents in case anything ever happened. Her mother kept a pretty sharp eye on them because she said they were too pretty for their own good. After one unnerving stalker incident a few years earlier, her mother never went very long without checking on them.

“We’re totally fine mom,” Aria assured her mother, smiling widely. “I’m sorry for not sharing our plans with you. Clarice and I decided it was past time that we revisit the hospital and see if we could thank Calypso for saving our lives.”

She felt Calypso’s hand rest companionably on her back as she spoke, bringing another smile to her face.

“Wait, you went over to see her before all of this nonsense in the news started blowing up?” her mother asked interestedly.

“Yeah, crazy timing, right?” Aria said wonderingly, resting an affectionate hand on Calypso’s knee.

“Did you get to see her?” her mother asked, intrigued.

“You could say that,” Aria breathed, her smile threatening to split her face in half.

There was silence on the other end of the line for a moment. “She’s with you right now, isn’t she?”

Aria gasped in amazement. “Mom, how could you possibly have guessed that?”

“Because I know you,” her mother chuckled. “And you sound like you are on cloud nine. I remember sounding like that when your dad and I first met.”

Aria’s face shamed a sunset as she began spluttering into the phone. She felt Calypso shift beside her, but didn’t dare to look at her.

“I would pay good money to see your face right now,” her mother declared, laughter thick in her voice.

“I’m going to pay you back for this, mom,” she threatened, trying to get her blushing under control.

“Can I talk to her, please?” her mother asked hopefully.

Aria snuck a peek at Calypso. She was watching Aria with a strange expression. It was somewhere between confusion and thoughtfulness. She muted the phone and forced her blushing face to look at the ageless woman next to her.

“My mom wants to know if she can talk to you,” Aria informed her hesitantly. “It’s totally okay if you don’t want to speak with her.”

The corner of Calypso’s lips turned up as she watched the flustered Aria. “I would love to talk to Emily.”

Aria blinked at the use of her mother’s name, but handed the phone over to Calypso and pushed the unmute button.

“Hello, Emily,” Calypso greeted her warmly.

There was a pause on the other end as her mother heard her own name. “Hi, Calypso. I just wanted to repeat the offer I made all those years ago. If there is anything you need, you just let me know. I’ve waited a long time to pay your kindness back, but I haven’t forgotten.”

“You and your family are such wonderful people,” Calypso replied fondly. “I’m not sure what I would have done if Aria and Clarice hadn’t showed up at my house and warned me about losing my anonymity.”

Her mother paused as she put the pieces together. “We have several extra rooms at our house if there is any risk of people finding you over there. We can help you financially in any way you need as well.”

“Thank you, Emily,” Calypso said, her voice catching. “I’m so glad they came out to see me yesterday. I guess I never really noticed how lonely I was.”

Aria put her arm around Calypso and hugged her comfortingly. “She’s good on money, Mom,” Aria said dryly. “She’s an oil baron.”

“Apparently, I’m an oil baron, Emily,” Calypso told her mother. “I’m not sure what that is, but I’ve been assured that I am one.”

“She invested in oil back in the 1920’s,” Aria told her mom with a grin. “She just lives off of the interest now.”

“1920’s?” her mother asked in disbelief.

“Mom, we probably shouldn’t discuss this stuff on the phone,” Aria said with a frown. “But suffice it to say that Calypso is endlessly full of surprises.”

“You’re probably right,” her mother agreed. “Would you all like to come over for dinner tonight?”

“She doesn’t eat,” Aria replied, trying and failing to suppress a grin. “But I’ll see if she’s interested in coming over to visit later.”

“I would love to visit,” Calypso said eagerly.

“Okay, we’ll see you tonight, Mom,” Aria said with a quick smile at Calypso.

Calypso looked at her quizzically after she hung up. “What does it mean to be on cloud nine?”

Aria barely stopped herself from facepalming. “It’s an expression that means you are extremely happy. They rate cloud types numerically, and nine refers to the highest type of cloud, called a cumulonimbus cloud.” She tried to obfuscate the meaning with technical terms.

“And your mom felt like she was on cloud 9 when she first met your dad?” Calypso inquired curiously.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Aria replied, daring her cheeks to blush.

“In that case, I feel like I’m on cloud nine too,” Calypso told her with a jubilant smile.

Aria stared at her, feeling almost positive that Calypso was ignorant of the romantic connotations of the colloquialism. Aria settled for a genuine smile as she observed the angelic woman smiling back at her.

“I wonder how long Clarice is going to sleep,” Aria said, mainly for something to fill the silence before her mind tied her thoughts into a pretzel.

“I could go energize her, if you want?” Calypso offered helpfully. “It seemed to work on you pretty well.”

Aria felt conflicting emotions as she stared into large violet eyes. She felt an odd sense of possessiveness, not wanting to share her angel. She had always shared everything with Clarice, and it struck a discordant note in her soul to entertain such selfish desires.

“Okay,” Aria heard her mouth answer on its own. “Let’s get her recharged.”

Calypso didn’t move. She stared back at Aria searchingly. Aria suddenly cursed inwardly as she remembered Calypso could see straight past her words and into her emotions. She needed to be a lot more convincing.

“Sorry, I’m just being greedy,” Aria told her sheepishly. “Come on, let’s go super charge Clarice.”

She stood up, pulling Calypso by the hand as she did. She pulled her along behind her over to Clarice’s room. She quietly opened Clarice’s door, and they entered her stepsister’s room.

Clarice was sprawled out on her bed in shorts and a tank top, her black hair fanning out around her head. Her delicate features had softened even more with sleep. Calypso stared at her intently, an endearing smile on her face.

She walked over to the bed and laid her hand gently on Clarice’s head. Aria didn’t see anything, but she felt the ambient feeling of love around Calypso narrow and focus on Clarice.

Aria let out a relieved sigh when she saw that all Calypso was doing was placing a hand on Clarice’s head. The stingy side of her soul had been expecting Calypso to snuggle up to Clarice in bed. She felt a sense of shame at her own selfish thoughts. Clarice was her best friend in the world. Aria had no claim on Calypso. She needed to convince the ugly side of her soul to stop trying to hoard the angelic woman.

Aria walked over to Calypso. “How long do you think it will take? Should I get you a chair?” Aria whispered.

Calypso glanced up at her and smiled gratefully. “Thank you, but I’m totally fine standing. I’m not exactly sure how long it will take. This is all kind of new to me.”

Aria stared at Calypso narrowly for a moment before going out of the room to get a chair. The selfless woman was once again trying to be too kind for her own good. She was the pleaser of all pleasers.

“Thank you,” Calypso said gratefully as Aria sat the chair down. Her eyes watched Aria fondly as her emotions played across her face transparently. She reminded Aria of a child in a way, before they learned to hide their emotions. Her insanely expressive eyes stared something close to adoration at Aria as she sat down.

Aria stepped behind her and began massaging her shoulders. Calypso tensed her shoulders initially, but as Aria continued kneading them gently but firmly, she relaxed and leaned back into the massage. A groan escaped her lips as Aria dug into muscles that had probably never been worked.

Aria wasn’t prepared for the emotional reaction to the shoulder massage. Calypso’s eyes filled with quicksilver tears and the room was suddenly blanketed in such an intense wave of love and gratitude that her knees nearly buckled. The beautiful woman had always been so selfless and compassionate to everyone else but had clearly never had that tenderness reciprocated. Calypso was nearly overwhelmed with her feelings of gratitude to another person selflessly striving to make her feel good. Aria could feel just how much Calypso craved the touch of another person, though she suspected, not necessarily in an intimate way. Her life of solitude had deprived her of anything but the most superficial contact with other people.

Aria spent the next half an hour working on Calypso’s shoulders and neck. The room was saturated with the sense of contentment and wonder as Calypso’s powerful aura projected her emotions. All too soon the moment ended as Clarice’s eyes popped open, looking alert and full of life.

“Hi,” Clarice greeted Calypso with a questioning look, her lips curving up slightly.

“Good morning,” Calypso smiled down at her warmly as she removed her hand from Clarice’s head. “We wanted to give you a recharge like Aria got on the drive over here.”

“Is that why I feel like I’ve slept for a week?” Clarice asked as she stretched and sat up. “Thank you, Calypso. I feel wonderful.”

“Me too,” Calypso said dreamily. “Aria has been giving me a shoulder massage while I sat here. I had no idea it could feel so good. I was hoping you would sleep for another hour.”

Aria and Clarice broke into gales of laughter at the rare humorous quip from Calypso. She smiled affectionately at them, her large eyes filled with love.

“You have been neglected for too long,” Aria told her firmly. “You are in desperate need of pampering.”

“That’s not true,” Calypso objected half-heartedly. “I’ve had the children at the hospitals to engage with, as well as the receptionist and a few nurses.”

Clarice shared a knowing look with Aria.

“Let’s be honest here,” Clarice said sternly. “You interact with hospital staff for a minute or less, then work on healing the sick. Almost all of your interactions are one-sided and initiated by you.”

“But that’s the way I like it,” Calypso insisted, her words at odds with the look of emptiness in her eyes. “I’m a nurturer. I find joy in helping others.”

“You are a nurturer,” Clarice agreed gently. “But that doesn’t negate the fact that you still need to be nurtured too. You are like a flower that has offered all of its water up to the surrounding plants while never receiving any water for yourself. You are too worried about inflicting a burden on other people, to the point that you don’t accept the compassion other people wish to share with you for fear that it will be an imposition that drives them away.”

“And you couldn’t drive us away no matter how imposing the action,” Aria added resolutely. “You are stuck with us, and we are going to pamper you whether you like it or not.”

Calypso’s eyes had grown more vulnerable as Clarice spoke. When Aria finished, Calypso’s eyes filled with quicksilver tears that began streaming down her face. She sat trying to articulate a response, but words had failed her.

Aria leaned down from behind Calypso and wrapped her arms around her comfortingly. Clarice reached out and took her hands gently as she stared into Calypso’s large violet eyes. “It’s okay,” Clarice said tenderly. “We are here with you now. You don’t need to hide your feelings from us. We love you and will care for you. Just let it out.”

Calypso’s violet eyes started to glow softly as more quicksilver tears flooded her cheeks. As the tears fell away from her face they evaporated into a silver mist. One of the tears made it all of the way to Clarice’s hand. Aria gasped as Clarice’s hand began to glow softly. Clarice let out a soft sigh as her eyes suddenly glowed white for a moment. Some of the tiny lines of worry around her eyes smoothed out and vanished. Her face subtly changed, her features becoming slightly softer and even more feminine.

Calypso closed her eyes and took a deep breath, her lips turning up into a radiant smile. She squeezed Clarice’s hands, her eyes still closed.

“I’ve waited so long for this moment,” Calypso murmured softly, a few more tears dropping from her cheeks. “I really needed this release. Thank you.”

“Yes, you did,” Aria agreed gently.

The sound of knocking at her front door made Aria jump in startlement. “Who could that be?” she asked in puzzlement. She pulled out her phone to check the camera, but it couldn’t connect to her door camera.

“I’m going to see who’s there,” Aria told the two of them warily. “Stay in here, okay?”

Calypso nodded, her eyes still closed and smiling her radiant smile. The site caused butterflies to try and escape Aria’s abdomen.

She went to the front door and peered through the spyhole. The next door neighbor was standing outside. She cautiously opened the door.

“Hey Cynthia, what’s up?” she asked the middle aged woman in a voice she hoped sounded normal.

“I was just curious if your power went out as well, or if it was just mine,” Cynthia said, peering at her curiously.

“I don’t think so,” Aria said, turning to look into her apartment. She frowned as she realized the power had gone out. “Oh, I guess it is out. I didn’t even notice.”

“Okay, I guess it’s the whole building then,” Cynthia sighed. “I’ll call the management company. It’s hard to work from home without power.”

“I’m sorry,” Aria told her, wincing her commiseration. “Thanks for making the call to management.”

“It was pretty weird,” Cynthia told her, looking hesitant. “I felt kind of weird right before it went out. Kind of euphoric. Did you notice anything odd a few minutes ago?”

“Nothing,” Aria replied blankly, forcing her expression to look innocent. “We are in solar maximum right now, so maybe there was a powerful solar flare from the sun. They can knock out the power and cause some odd psychological effects.”

“Oh,” Cynthia said, her expression relaxing. “Maybe it was something like that.”

“Good luck,” Aria smiled at her, closing the door.

Aria frowned as she began making her way back to Clarice’s room. It seemed a little too coincidental that the power went out right after Calypso had a powerful emotional release. Then there was the problem of having neighbors so close that Calypso’s powerful aura could affect their moods. They needed to find a different place to stay.

“Who was it?” Clarice asked curiously as Aria entered the room. She was still sitting on the edge of the bed holding Calypso’s hands.

“It was Cynthia,” Aria answered with a meaningful look at Calypso. “She wanted to know if our power was out too. Apparently it is out.”

Clarice raised an eyebrow, her eyes conveying her understanding. “It seems like we lose power at least once a month here.”

“Do you remember how we were talking about getting a house instead of staying in an apartment complex?” Aria asked Clarice casually.

Clarice blinked, then nodded. “Yeah, having so many neighbors makes it hard to play our music without disturbing people. You want to go house hunting or something?”

“I was thinking we could go to Mom’s house until we find something suitable,” Aria replied with a small grin. “She called while you were asleep and wants us to come over tonight. All of us.”

“You told her about Calypso?” Clarice asked in surprise.

“Mom is too smart for her own good,” Aria told her wryly. “She saw our location history and made an intuitive leap.”

“That woman,” Clarice shook her head, but her eyes were filled with affection.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you something, Calypso,” Aria began, looking at Calypso quizzically. “How did you know my mom’s name was Emily?”

Calypso finally opened her eyes to look at her and Aria gasped. The violet eyes looking back at her had somehow been magnified into a much richer shade of violet. There were intricate weaves of lighter lavender around the border of her irises now. The overall effect was mesmerizing, capturing Aria’s gaze and holding it tightly. Is this what all of those tears were hiding?

“When I look at your aura it has your name etched onto it,” Calypso explained, her voice filled with a new timbre that made you hang on to every word. Her voice seemed to caress the soul now, causing small tingles to shoot down Aria’s spine. Her voice and her eyes changed? Is this all a result of her finally releasing her grief and loneliness?

“What do aura’s look like?” Clarice asked in fascination.

Calypso looked at her in perplexity. “You can’t see auras?” she stared at them in surprise.

“Normal people can’t see auras,” Aria told her in an amused tone. “Have you gone your whole life thinking everyone can see auras?”

“Well, you do seem to know what they are,” Calypso pointed out defensively. “How would you know what they are if you can’t see them?”

“It’s mainly used as a metaphor,” Clarice explained patiently. “It refers to the way something feels, such as somebody having an aura of power about them. Back in the eighteen hundreds when mysticism became popular, they redefined it as a kind of energy that surrounded people, possibly as a result of the spirit creating a shield around the body to keep it safe from the threat of possession by evil spirits. People can’t actually see aura’s, though they often have pictures from cameras that seem to show evidence of an aura.”

“Thanks, Professor Clarice,” Aria grinned sardonically. “What’s on tomorrow’s history lesson?”

“Quiet, Tweedle Dee,” Clarice admonished her with a wink. “I have to show off when the opportunity presents itself.”

“So, what do they look like to you?” Aria asked Calypso in fascination.

“A healthy aura glows a bright white color,” Calypso replied, her eyes staring at what Aria now knew to be her aura. “It has colors that will ripple through it like waves based on a person’s emotional state. When someone is anxious, the waves are more turbulent. When someone is sick, it is like a parasitic entity has attached itself to the aura and wrapped it in black and red cords. When I first saw you, your aura was almost completely extinguished by the weight and complexity of the cords wrapped around you. When I sang for you it shattered the cords, allowing your light to shine out once more.”

Aria felt a surge of love in her heart for their beautiful angel at the reminder of what she had done for them.

Calypso smiled at her warmly. “Right now, your aura is projecting love. The waves in your aura are deep and smooth.

Aria smiled back at her, letting her love for the other woman fill her aura.

“That means you can tell when someone gives you a fake name,” Clarice said intently. “You would be great at catching spies!”

Calypso let out silvery peals of laughter as she stared at Clarice fondly, filling the room with an indescribable joy.

“What were your parents like?” Aria asked Calypso curiously. “Just tell me to mind my own business if you don’t want to talk about it.”

“Technically, they weren’t my parents,” Calypso replied, her eyes going distant. “They said they found me in the hollow of a giant tree when I was five years old. They had assumed that someone had abandoned me. The person I call my mother was unable to have children of her own, so she convinced her husband to keep me. I don’t remember anything before that day. My father repaired musical instruments for a living. He taught me everything he knew of the instruments that he could play. That’s where my love of music started.”

“Did you eat back then?” Aria asked, fascinated. “What did they think of your abilities? Did they know about them?”

Calypso laughed at her rapid-fire questions, unconsciously pushing a stray lock of pale blonde hair behind her ear. “I didn’t eat. They thought I was picky, at first. I wasn’t sure how to convince them that I didn’t need food, so I told them I was fasting. They were a religious couple and accepted that answer for a few days. After a week without eating or drinking though, they finally became suspicious and took me to a priest. He told them I was possessed of a devil and that they should leave me with him at the church until he could exorcise the evil spirit out of me. My mother refused. I remember she got into a huge fight with my father over the incident, but she got her way in the end. After that, they just pretended not to notice that I didn’t ever eat. When I showed an aptitude for music, my father warmed up to me a lot more.”

“I started healing people accidentally when I was singing in our church,” Calypso continued musingly. “Everyone believed that it was god’s work when people would get better after the hymns. My parents didn’t find out it was me until my mother got really sick one winter. I sang to her one night and she instantly recovered. She made the connection with the healings at church and warned me to never let anyone know that it was me.”

“What did they think about your eyes?” Clarice asked, enthralled as she stared at Calypso’s beautiful eyes.

“They thought it was just a birth defect,” Calypso answered, staring back into Clarice’s eyes affectionately. “They were worried that it would attract unwanted attention, so they ordered some tinted glasses for me to wear.”

“They sound like they really loved you,” Aria said softly.

Calypso’s eyes moistened again. “They did. They died in a house fire when I was thirteen. I was able to continue running the music store after they were gone. I still have all of those instruments at my house.”

Aria rested her hand on Calypso’s neck comfortingly when she spoke of her parents death. Clarice squeezed her hands reassuringly.

“Oh yeah, moving company,” Aria blurted suddenly, pulling out her phone. “I need to call them now that it is daytime and get your stuff moved. We don’t want to risk losing those instruments.”

“I can do that,” Calypso assured her, releasing Clarice’s hands and standing up. “That is, if you don’t mind me using your phone?”

“I’ve got this,” Aria told her confidently. “I thought I remembered something about someone getting pampered. I know this woman who gives the absolute best back massages in the world.”

“That’s right,” Clarice told Calypso with a wide grin. “You’re looking at the best masseuse this side of the Mississippi.”

As she spoke, Clarice opened up her closet and pulled out a folded up massage table and set it up.

“Just lay face down here and let me work,” Clarice ordered Calypso firmly.

Calypso’s face was a picture of warring desires. Before she could make any objections though, Clarice marched her over to the table and firmly pushed her down on to it. With a helpless laugh, she complied and laid down.

Aria grinned as she walked back into the front room and called the moving company. After twenty minutes of getting transferred between departments and put on hold, she was finally able to make the arrangements. She put the charges on her own credit card, content to either collect the money later, or pay it off on her own. As she waited for the moving company to process the order she could feel powerful waves of contentment washing around the apartment. Clarice had the hands of a goddess when it came to massages.

After hanging up the phone, she returned to Clarice’s room to find Calypso groaning as Clarice’s thumbs dug into her back muscles. She had pulled her shirt up to expose the skin of her back.

“Are you sure you aren’t an angel?” Clarice was asking Calypso suspiciously as she worked.

“I don’t have a halo,” Calypso murmured, her voice filled with contentment.

“Well, you do have some muscles on your back that the rest of us don’t have,” Clarice told her challengingly. “I’m going to go out on a limb and assume this is wear your wings are supposed to be.”

“I’ve always wanted to fly,” Calypso mused dreamily. “That would be amazing.”

Clarice shared a meaningful look with Aria, glancing significantly at Calypso’s shoulder blades. Aria walked over and noticed two small ridges beneath the skin under her shoulder blades. She looked up to see Clarice grinning at her triumphantly. With a resigned sigh, she nodded. Okay, so she’s an angel.

“The moving company is going to pick your stuff up tomorrow,” Aria informed them. “I’m just having it put in a storage unit by my parents’ house. Someone will probably follow the movers in hopes of finding out where you are, so I figured a storage shed would be a good way to throw them off your trail.”

Chapter 3

“Who’s up for a game of Catan?” Aria asked an hour later.

Calypso was sitting in the front room studying their collection of instruments. When Clarice had finished her back massage, Calypso had pulled her into a fierce hug and thanked her profusely. Clarice had been all gloating satisfaction since discovering Calypso’s “wing muscles”.

“What’s Catan?” Calypso asked curiously. She had undergone another transformation after Clarice had finished her massage. Eyes that had already become as bright as gemstones now had an actual inner glow. It was getting easier and easier to see her as some kind of angelic being. Her striking features and large, expressive eyes made it hard not to stare at her.

“It’s a board game,” Aria answered cheerfully. “One of the best board games. I’m guessing you haven’t ever played a board game?”

Calypso shook her head, her glowing eyes curious.

“Perfect, we’ll teach you how to play,” Aria told her with a quick grin. “It’s not too complicated.”

They spent the next half hour playing Catan with Calypso. As she became more familiar with the rules she began to have fun. It wasn’t until half-way through the game that she ruined it for them.

“Is there a reason I shouldn’t roll the dice to the numbers I want?” Calypso asked curiously.

“I’m not sure what you mean,” Aria stared at her in confusion.

“If I need a two, shouldn’t I just roll a two?” Calypso asked, rolling the dice.

Aria stared at the pair of one’s in front of her. “Did you roll that on purpose?”

“Of course,” Calypso replied slowly. “I’m on the resource with the two on it. Don’t I want the two?”

“Do me a favor and roll a three real fast,” Aria said, feeling a sinking sensation in her stomach.

Calypso looked at her strangely but complied. She picked up the dice and rolled a one and a two.

Clarice burst out laughing at the look of dismay on Aria’s face. When her expression grew affronted, Clarice laughed harder, nearly falling out of her chair.

“What am I missing?” Calypso asked, her lips curving up as she watched the mirthful Clarice.

“Okay, another lesson on the limitations of mortals,” Aria sighed, her shoulders slumping resignedly. “We can’t make the dice roll to whatever number we want. It’s just random for us.”

“Really?” Calypso looked at her in surprise, violet eyes looking at her curiously.

“Yeah, really,” Aria confirmed in a dry tone. “How, exactly, are you making it roll the number you want?”

“You can feel the little dots that indicate which number it is when they are in your hands,” Calypso answered, demonstrating by holding the two dice. “Then, you just roll them with the correct amount of force and spin to make them show up with the number you want.”

“Of course you do,” Aria facepalmed. “I need to take you to Vegas.”

“She’s just bitter because she always wins Catan,” Clarice informed Calypso, laughter still thick in her voice. “She claimed she always got such good numbers because the gods loved her. I think maybe the god’s don’t lover her so much anymore.”

“They still love me,” Aria declared airily. “They sent me an angel, after all.”

Calypso blushed as Aria winked at her and Clarice rolled her eyes.

“Okay, for the rest of the game, just roll them randomly,” Aria instructed Calypso firmly.

“It will be our little secret if you forget sometimes,” Clarice told Calypso with a wink and a nudge.

Calypso threw her head back and laughed. It was so infectious that Aria found herself laughing along with her.

When Aria finally won, barely, she smiled victoriously at Clarice. “The gods still love me!”

Clarice made a sour face and threw a settlement at her.

The room was filled with warm affection and joy as Calypso’s aura saturated the area. She was clearly enjoying the experience of having friends and trying new things. She was like a rose starved of water and sunlight that was finally getting the sustenance it so desperately needed to thrive and bloom.

“Should we head over to mom’s house now?” Aria questioned Clarice, looking around the apartment uneasily. “If I had a sixth sense, it would be telling me we need to leave now.”

“Agreed,” Clarice nodded, her dark eyes wary. “I’m getting the same vibe for some reason.”

“What is it?” Calypso asked them in concern.

“Just a feeling,” Aria answered with a shrug. “We were going to visit my parents this evening anyway. We’ll just go a little earlier.”

“But let’s bring some of our instruments,” Clarice suggested, eyeing Calypso meaningfully. “We may be gone for a while, and I don’t want to leave all of them behind.”

“Yeah, let’s pack up like we are going on a long vacation,” Aria said eagerly. “It will be fun.”

Clarice snorted a laugh. “Never grow up, Aria.”

It took them almost an hour to pack up and load everything they wanted in both of their cars. When it was time to leave, Aria pulled out a hooded cloak she had used on Halloween and had Calypso wear it down to her car. She had argued that while it might catch some attention, it wouldn’t matter so long as they couldn’t see Calypso. People did weird stuff all of the time.

Calypso was driving in Aria’s car while Clarice was driving her own car, laden with as many of their musical instruments as they could fit. Clarice had argued vehemently for Calypso to drive with her. They had finally settled it with a rock, paper, scissors. Aria had won three out of three, much to Clarice’s disgust. She had cursed the gods for doting on redheads as they carried their instruments down to her car.

Aria took pity on Clarice and called her after a few miles and put the phone through the car’s Bluetooth so that they could all be included.

“Just don’t say anything too revealing,” Clarice had warned them. “I’m sure they can have phone conversations flagged for hot topic words, so let’s not give them any reason to tap our call.”

“They probably have voice recognition as well,” Aria pointed out. “Maybe a certain angel shouldn’t talk when we are on the phone in case they are able to flag the call with a voice match.”

“This is getting so cloak and dagger,” Clarice sighed irritably. “Too bad privacy is a thing of the past.”

They stayed silent for most of the drive. Calypso was enjoying being a passenger and being able to observe the world around her. She still wore Aria’s cloak, since the car didn’t have tinted windows.

About an hour into their drive a guy on a motorcycle drove up next to her car and started popping a wheely. He waggled his eyebrows at her suggestively as he stayed parallel to her car.

“Mom always said you were too pretty for your own good,” Clarice noted in an amused tone. She was driving right behind Aria, watching the hormones on wheels trying to get her attention.

“What is with people like this?” Aria grumbled sourly. “Does this kind of thing ever work on girls? Seriously.”

“I doubt it,” Clarice replied dryly. “Nobody ever claimed hormones and brains went together.”

“I’m just going to ignore him and see if he goes away,” Aria declared in irritation. “He’ll have to give up eventually, right?”

The man had sped up and moved over to the shoulder on the passenger side of the car, then slowed down so that he was riding next to Calypso. He made a gesture at her to pull her cloak off. She turned her head and looked at the man, her glowing eyes plainly visible beneath the dark cowl. The man jerked sideways in surprise, then lost control of his bike. It slid sideways down the shoulder with him tumbling along behind it. Aria slammed on her breaks as his body rolled into the lane.

“Aw shit,” Aria swore as she put the car in park. “Clarice, can you put your hazards on and try to slow traffic down, so we don’t get hit?”

She ran out of her car, dodging a semi-truck that missed her by inches. She ran up to the man sprawled out in the road, dreading what she would find. His legs were twisted in ways legs should definitely not twist. He was as silent as the grave when she reached him, his eyes staring lifelessly. It was a miracle his helmetless head wasn’t splattered. It was covered in blood and road rash, along with a significant portion of his torso and legs. As she stared at the wreckage of a man in front of her she felt sick.

She jumped in shock when she heard Calypso’s voice right behind her.

“His soul is going to depart if I don’t help,” Calypso said softly. She reached down and cupped his head in her hands. His twisted neck was clearly broken. With a sharp cracking noise, Calypso snapped his neck back into place. As she worked on him she sung quietly to herself. Aria could feel the waves of healing energy flowing out of Calypso; it hummed like a high-voltage line. It seemed different than what she had done with the sick children. It was like she was weaving a pattern with her words. There were words of power in her song, words that Aria was sure no mortal tongue had ever spoken. She watched in stunned amazement as the man’s bones snapped into place and his flesh knit back together.

Aria was aware of another person jogging back toward them from where they had parked on the shoulder further ahead, but her focus was riveted to the miraculous healing taking place in front of her eyes. The last thing Calypso healed were the abrasions covering the man’s head. The bloody skull that was plainly visible at various parts of his head suddenly sealed shut as new skin knit back together around his scalp. Once his body was whole, Calypso grabbed both sides of his head and growled a guttural word that sent chills down Arias spine.

The man jerked in her grasp, and eyes that just moments ago were lifeless began staring around in panic. Calypso released his head and looked at Aria, her glowing eyes sparkling with triumph.

“It worked,” she whispered with an angelic smile.

Aria swallowed as she stared at her angel in awe. She had just brought a man back from the dead.

“You’re Calypso,” the man who had run back from the vehicle ahead of them gasped in shock.

Aria’s head snapped up in panic and she quickly stood up and motioned toward Clarice to come forward. Traffic had slowed to a crawl around them. People were recording video with their phones as they gawked at the scene.

“What happened,” the man who had died asked in a shaken voice.

“You had died after crashing your motorcycle,” Calypso told him gently, her captivating voice filled with compassion. “You’ll be okay now. Just be more careful when you drive.”

Clarice inched her way through the traffic until she was next to them.

“Get her out of here,” Aria told her sister urgently.

Calypso followed Aria over to Clarice’s car and quickly got into the passenger seat. Clarice drove away as soon as she was in.

Aria turned back to see the biker and the other motorist staring after her sister’s departing car in shock. Aria turned to go back to her car, but the man called out to her.

“Did Calypso really bring him back from the dead?” he asked in awe, his eyes wide.

Aria looked over at the other cars that were stopped, their phones pointed at her. With a curse, she ignored the man and hurried back into her car. She carefully drove past the two men as they continued staring at her in wonder.

“So, that was unexpected,” Aria said in exasperation, her phone call with Clarice still active.

“I think we better find a plan B,” Clarise said tersely. “Now that people know she is with us it won’t take long for them to find mom and dad’s house.”

“I’m going to add mom to the call and see if she has any ideas,” Aria said, quickly adding her mother to their call.

“Hello Aria, are you still coming tonight?” her mother asked hopefully.

“We’ve got a problem, mom,” Aria informed her tightly. “I have Clarice and Calypso on the line as well.”

“What’s wrong?” her mom asked worriedly. “Are you hurt?”

“No, we’re fine,” Aria answered quickly. “But in a very short time the whole world is going to know that Calypso is with us. I don’t think it will be that much of a stretch for them to find your house. Do you have any ideas on where we could go that wouldn’t be obvious to the autists of the internet?”

“Yes, I know just the place,” her mom answered reassuringly. “Just get over here and I’ll take you there. Can you tell me what happened?”

“Some idiot on a motor bike kept trying to show off next to my car,” Aria growled in exasperation. “He ended up wrecking in front of us. He was dead. Like totally lifeless. Calypso came over and did something to bring him back to life. She also healed him. He had looked like he had gone through a meat grinder, but Calypso was able to completely fix him. There were other people on the road that were watching, some of them taking video. I would guess we have less than twenty minutes before it blows up on the internet.”

“You need to get off of the main roads,” her mother told her firmly. “There will probably be people looking for your car on that highway. See if you can plot a different route.”

“Good idea,” Aria exhaled, trying to shed some of her anxiety. “Thanks mom.”

“I think we need to leave your cars somewhere along the way,” her mom said pensively. “I’m going to meet you part way. I can have your uncle go pick up your cars later. I’ll send you coordinates to the meeting place.”

“Okay, thanks again mom,” Aria breathed gratefully.

“I’m going to call your uncle now,” her mom said, the sound of her car starting in the background. “I’ll see you soon.”

“Mom rocks,” Clarice noted proudly. “I’m going to get a shirt that says that too, mark my words.”

Aria giggled at the thought, the tension draining out of her a little. “Thanks, Clarice, I needed that.”

“I would get one that said Aria rocks, but it would sound like ‘are ya rocks?’ when said out loud, so that one is a no-go,” Clarice told her impishly. “We could try for one that says ‘where are ya Aria’ though. I used to love saying that when we were younger. Everyone thought I was saying ‘where are ya are ya’.”

“Nobody thought you were saying that, you goose,” Aria protested dryly. “At least, not after the first hundred times that you did it.”

“How are you doing, Aria?” Calypso’s concerned voice asked. Even on the telephone her voice was riveting, causing tingles to go up her spine.

“Better, for hearing your voice,” Aria replied truthfully.

“Oh Aria,” Calypso said softly. Aria imagined that she could almost feel the love emanating out of the other woman.

“I’m getting off of the next exit,” Clarice informed her. “It’s exit 34. Have you caught up yet?”

“Not quite,” Aria replied, glancing at her phone’s GPS. “I’m only about thirty seconds behind you though. I’ve got mom’s coordinates now too.”

Aria caught up to the other two women shortly after getting off of the interstate. The remainder of the drive was uneventful. They pulled into a KOA campground and found their mother parked behind some trees. They quickly got out of their cars and walked over to the black SUV. Her mother was waiting outside of the SUV for them. When she saw Calypso walking towards her, she couldn’t help staring. The glowing eyes were enthralling enough, but the overpowering presence of love and gratitude was like a magnet as it captivated her focus.

Calypso walked up to their mom and pulled her into a warm embrace. “Thank you so much for coming, Emily,” she spoke softly, her large eyes filled with gratitude. “You are such a wonderful family.”

Her mother melted into the embrace as Calypso’s aura enveloped her. Aria knew how wonderful a Calypso hug felt.

“Of course, Calypso,” Emily replied affectionately. “I’ve been waiting for the day that I could repay the kindness you showed us in some small way. I’m just glad that it finally came.”

Her mother quickly embraced her two daughters as well, then herded them into the SUV.

Clarice sat in the front seat, leaving the back for her and Calypso. Fortunately, the SUV had dark tinted windows, allowing Calypso to remove the cloak.

“Okay, first things first,” their mother said briskly. “Turn off your cell phones completely. Then slip them into the seat pouch. It’s a faraday cage and should keep any signal from getting out.

“Where are we going?” Aria asked as her mom began driving. She shut her phone off and put it in the seat pocket, looking at the interlocking wire mesh curiously.

“My grandmother had a cabin up in the mountains that I used to visit when I was a kid,” her mother replied, glancing back at them in the mirror. “Your uncle has been renovating and maintaining it for the last decade, so it is perfectly habitable. It’s away from the city and all of the noise, but best of all it isn’t tied to our name in any way. The title was passed down to a friend of the family who lost interest in it but didn’t want to sell it for fear of alienating us. He let your uncle take over in everything but name. It’s totally off the grid, with solar panels, a well, and sceptic. Your uncle has turned it into a little slice of paradise. We had planned on taking the two of you out there for Christmas this year.”

“That sounds perfect!” Clarise exclaimed eagerly. “If we can stay out of sight long enough to get up there, we should be able to keep her safe.”

“How far is it?” Aria asked anxiously.

“It’s about an hour away,” their mother replied. “If we can make it there without any bathroom breaks, we should be able to keep you out of sight.”

“I’m pretty sure Calypso doesn’t use the bathroom,” Clarice said dryly. “Am I right, Calypso?”

Calypso shifted awkwardly as she answered. “Yeah, no bathrooms for me.”

“Considering you don’t eat or drink, that seemed pretty obvious to me,” Clarice noted smugly. “You can just call me Sherlock from now on.”

“Oh, I will,” Aria promised with a grin. “Exclusively.”

“Quiet, Tweedle Dee,” Clarice commanded firmly.

“I’ve heard you call her Tweedle Dee a few times now,” Calypso noted in her vibrant voice. “What am I missing? She doesn’t seem like the character from the Alice In Wonderland story.”

“That’s my fault,” their mother explained with a chuckle. “When they were younger they always reminded me of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum with their constant banter, so I started calling them Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.”

Calypso laughed, and it was like a summer day in all of its glory. Her aura swept over them, filling them with joy. Clarice shared a look with their mother. As her mother looked at her, she frowned.

“Did you do something to your face?” her mother asked, puzzled. “You look different.”

“I do?” Clarice asked in surprise. She pulled the visor down to look in the mirror, then gasped. “What the…”

“Angel tears,” Aria told her with a sidelong glance at Calypso. “Apparently they have some kind of softening effect on biological organisms.”

“Don’t call me a biological organism,” Clarice objected reproachfully. “That sounds gross.”

“How about meat sack?” Aria suggested archly.

Clarice turned around in her seat to stare at her with a horrified expression. “I do not have a meat sack, you pervert!”

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it,” Aria retorted, her own face wrinkling in disgust. “I did not want that image in my head.”

“Now do you see why I called them Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum?” their mother asked Calypso with a resigned sigh. “This used to go on for hours.”

Calypso was watching them with fond amusement, her lips curling into a winsome smile. “To my eyes, it is like watching two conversations unfold,” Calypso told their mother softly. “Their voices are saying one thing, but their auras are filled with affection and love toward each other as they talk.”

“Hey, that’s cheating!” Aria accused Calypso with a severe expression.

“Seriously,” Clarice agreed in a petulant tone. “That’s like putting a door wedge on train tracks.”

Calypso blinked, her eyes going distant for a moment as she tried to work out colloquialisms and idioms that she had missed out on in her forced isolation. “Is that because it would derail the train?”

“Yes, just like sneaking peeks at our aura derails the banter wagon,” Clarice confirmed darkly.

“You’re a woman of many metaphors,” Aria praised Clarice. “I had a college professor who said people who naturally use metaphors usually have brilliant minds.”

Their mom’s phone started ringing, ending their discussion.

“It’s your uncle,” their mother informed them as she pressed the answer button on her steering wheel.

“Hi, Devon, did you get all of my messages?” she asked tersely.

“Yeah, I just wanted to make sure they really came from you and not a spoofed number,” a deep voice said through the car speakers. “Are they in some kind of trouble?”

“Yes,” she answered shortly. “I can’t talk about it on the phone, so explanations will have to wait until we meet up. It’s nothing illegal.”

“I think I have an idea of what’s going on,” his voice was pensive. “There are a few videos making the rounds on Twitter. I’m pretty sure I recognized a certain redhead.”

“So, it’s already out in the ether,” she sighed resignedly. “I knew it would spread fast, but I’d hoped it would take a little longer.”

“Was it real?” he asked quietly, his voice intent.

“Yes, it was real,” she confirmed. “We’ll fill you in on everything when you get there. Thanks for doing all of this, Devon.”

“I’m a hundred percent behind you, Emily,” he declared firmly. “You let your friend know that we won’t let her down.”

Aria looked at Calypso after the call ended. Her eyes were shining with unshed tears as she smiled at their mom.

“You really are wonderful people,” Calypso whispered tremulously.

“Wonderful people have to stick together,” Aria told her affectionately. “Otherwise, all of the assholes of the world will take advantage of us.”

The remainder of the drive was uneventful. Calypso’s presence filled the car with a sense of love and contentment, making it the most pleasant road trip Aria had ever been on. The last half hour of the drive was on winding mountain roads. They finally pulled into a driveway surrounded by large oak and maple trees. The driveway was nearly a mile long, leading to a three story cabin with enormous windows. There were three separate chimneys and a widows walk above the third story. She could see wrap-around balconies and a large veranda on the second story in the front. A pond was built into the veranda, with a small stream that trickled down a small waterfall and through the front yard. A variety of fruit trees dotted the front and sides of the yard.

Aria and Clarice gasped when they saw the gorgeous building, their eyes wide with amazement.

“Is this the place?” Aria asked disbelievingly.

“This is the place,” her mother confirmed, a satisfied smile on her face. “Like I said, we wanted to surprise you with it over the holidays. Your uncle Devon has been modernizing and upgrading the place for the last fifteen years. I’m not sure what he’s going to do for fun now that it is finished. He’ll have to find a new hobby.”

They pulled into a detached four car garage. As they exited the vehicle, Aria’s eyes fell on a small excavator in the back of one of the bays.

“Hey, can Uncle Devon teach me to use that excavator?” Aria asked eagerly. “I’ve always wanted to try one.”

“You like tractors now?” Clarice asked, her dark eyes amused.

“I’ve always liked tractors,” Aria replied defensively. “There just isn’t much use for them in apartments or houses with small yards.”

“What exactly are you going to dig with it?” Clarice asked pointedly.

“A hole to bury you in,” Aria retorted spitefully.

“Come along, you two,” their mother called out to them as she walked to the house. “Stop showing your love for each other for a few minutes.”

They both turned to look accusingly at Calypso. She was staring around the garage with interest. When she saw their accusatory stares, she giggled playfully. The sound was so innocent and full of joy that Aria couldn’t hold her glare, grinning back at her sardonically.

“And just like that, she shuts us down,” Clarice snorted a laugh. “You play dirty, Calypso.”

“Is there any other way to play?” Aria asked archly.

“I’m not even going to respond to that,” Clarice declared, walking after their mother. “There are innocent ears about.”

Aria followed after Clarice as Calypso fell into step beside her. Their mother gave them a partial tour of the house, showing them to their bedrooms. All of the bedrooms were on the third floor and had enormous windows showing a breathtaking view of the valley below them.

“Do you have a preference for the type of bed?” their mother asked Calypso as she showed them the available rooms. “Three of the rooms have king sized beds, while the other three are queens.”

“She doesn’t sleep,” Aria informed her mother, her eyes twinkling.

“At all?” her mother asked in surprise.

“At all,” Calypso confirmed. “Sometimes I wish I could sleep so that I could experience dreams. They seem fascinating.”

“So, you don’t eat, drink, or sleep,” their mother noted, her expression bewildered. “What do you run on?”

“She has some kind of metaphysical connection to light that keeps her nourished,” Aria told her mom, looking at Calypso appraisingly. “She can also see auras, which apparently have our names on them. She is also a total cheat when it comes to dice. She can make them roll whatever she wants.”

“She’s just bitter because she nearly lost a game of Catan,” Clarice informed her mother with a hoarse whisper. “We don’t talk about that though, because she starts pouting when we point out that the gods don’t love her anymore.”

“Okay, what kind of needs do you have?” their mother asked Calypso curiously, ignoring Clarice’s comment.

“Just loving friends and some musical instruments to play,” Calypso answered with a warm smile. “Thank you so much for everything, Emily.”

“We can certainly handle that much,” their mother said with a matching smile. “Devon will probably get here tonight with the cars we left behind, so you’ll have some of your instruments.”

“Do you mind if I stay in here for a while?” Calypso asked, looking out the large window at the valley below. “I would love to just stare at the view for a while. It’s breathtaking.”

“Of course,” their mother replied quickly. “You just make yourself at home and get comfortable. I’ll get these two situated.”

Aria stared at Calypso uncertainly, wondering if they had overwhelmed her with all of their attention. Calypso stared at her, eyes clearly peeking at her aura. “I really do just want to enjoy the view for a little while, Aria,” she smiled reassuringly. “I’ve never really been anywhere so beautiful. I just want to soak it all in.”

Aria smiled ruefully and shook her head at the way Calypso could practically read her mind. “Okay, but you just let us know if you need some alone time. I know we can be a little overwhelming with our silliness.”

“Not at all,” Calypso told her sincerely. “I’ve had enough solitude for a lifetime. You run along and get settled in your room. I’ll be along shortly.”

Aria went out the door with her mother and sister, glancing back once to see Calypso staring out the enormous window in wonder. Maybe she really is just enjoying the view.

“All right,” their mother spoke firmly. “Let’s hear the full story. What are we dealing with here?”

“This is going to sound crazy,” Aria hesitated for a moment before continuing, sharing a look with Clarice. “But we think she is an angel.”

Their mother looked at them skeptically. “Are you two getting religious?”

“No, Mom,” Clarice snorted scornfully. “We are not getting religious.”

“You do know that angels are part of religious scriptures, right?” Their mother inquired with a raised eyebrow.

“You need to think deeper, Mom,” Clarice replied evenly, her face serious. “Where did the idea of angels come from? How did they end up in religious texts?”

“Oh, I see what you mean,” their mother nodded introspectively. “So, you think the legend had to start with some basis of fact.”

“Exactly,” Clarice agreed soberly. “Someone like her, perhaps many like her, must have existed at some point in the past. They were probably the inspiration for whatever is going on in the bible after you get past all of the begats.”

“For all we know, they are from another world or dimension,” Aria added thoughtfully. “They could even be all around us now, but we lack the sensory technology to detect them. If something went wrong with Calypso when she was a child, maybe she ended up on our realm or something. She said she doesn’t remember anything before the age of five, when the owner of a music shop and his wife found her in a large tree right after world war one. I’ve heard enough fairy tales to know that mysterious trees are often gateways between realms.”

“So, we are essentially talking aliens,” their mother frowned. “I’m not sure why you think she belongs to a race of angels though.”

“Let me list the reasons,” Clarice said, holding up her fingers. “One: She heals people. Two: she plays all of the instruments, but I stress that she loves the harp. Three: her eyes are like jewels. Four: she brings people back from the dead. Five: she has muscles below her shoulder blades where wings probably appear normally.”

“How can you tell they aren’t just extra muscles from some kind of workout?” her mother asked doubtfully.

“I gave her a back massage at our apartment,” Clarice replied with a smile at the memory. “She had ridges going down her back, not just muscles. Something beneath the skin.”

“It definitely looked like something related to wings,” Aria chimed in confidently. “If you get a chance to see it, you’ll understand what we mean.”

“Oh yeah, she can see auras and says that our names are engraved on them,” Clarice revealed, raising her eyebrows at her mom. “Remember when you first met her, and you didn’t know how she knew your name?”

“I do,” she admitted with a frown. “I suppose there is more evidence for some kind of angel race theory than anything else right now.”

“I keep wondering what else she’ll be capable of,” Aria mused contemplatively, her green eyes speculative. “It seems like she has grown a lot since she came home with us. Her eyes became much sharper after she had an emotional release following a shoulder massage. Her voice became more powerful too. Then, after her back massage, her eyes started glowing. We’ve shown her a lot of love and attention. It’s almost like she is nourished by love. I have a feeling she wouldn’t have been able to bring that biker back from the dead if she hadn’t grown as much as she has over the last day.”

“Now that is interesting,” their mother remarked, her dark eyes intent. “I suppose that would be an easy theory to test. She’s going to get a lot of loving attention from now on.”

“One more thing,” Aria added with a glance at Clarice, examining her changed features. “Her tears look like quicksilver. They evaporate shortly after falling, but if they touch you they seem to have some kind of rejuvenating and transformative effect. We both touched one and look what it did to Clarice’s face.”

Clarice turned to study Aria critically. “It affected you too. You jawline is more feminine than it used to be. I thought my mind was playing tricks on me. Your eyes are slightly larger too.”

“I don’t know if it is related at all, but we both had a sixth sense feeling that we needed to leave the apartment quickly,” Aria revealed with a frown. “It happened after both of us were touched by her tears, so I wonder if it unlocked some kind of sixth sense in us. It sounds crazy, but as you’ve seen since this morning, the bar for crazy has been moved pretty far.”

“Okay, let’s accept the idea for now that she is an angel,” their mother decided, frowning as she continued. “That would mean she is probably in even more danger than we thought. If people knew she was an angel, we would have religions trying to claim her and governments trying to study her. People would go crazier for an angel than they would for an alien.”

“We have to find a way to keep her hidden here,” Aria declared firmly. “And have plans to move her if this place is compromised. Lots of contingency plans.”

XXXXX

Aria woke up when she heard the sound of a loud diesel engine. She sat up quickly and looked at the clock, grimacing when she saw that it was 3am. Who could be coming here at 3am.

She quickly put some clothes on and went down to her mother’s room. Seeing it was empty, she went down the stairs to the first floor. The lights were on in several rooms. She found her mother out on the porch holding a handheld radio.

“Thanks again for bringing them,” she was saying gratefully. “We owe you big time.”

As she put the radio down, she glanced at Aria with a raised eyebrow. “Trouble sleeping?”

“The sound of a diesel engine woke me up,” Aria answered, still feeling groggy. “I’m a light sleeper. Who’s that?”

“That’s your Uncle Devon,” her mother replied, gesturing down to the large parking area down by the garages. “In order to avoid people noticing your vehicle, he rented a small car hauler trailer and loaded both of the cars up from the KOA. That way, he was able to pull car tarps over the top of them to hide their appearance. He stopped at a mechanic shop his friend owns on the way and had the GPS transmitters removed, then brought them in the middle of the night to minimize chances of discovery.”

“Wow,” Aria breathed, sounding impressed. “He’s thorough. Did he work for the mob or an intelligence agency or something?”

“He’s never said,” her mother replied with a smile. “But I suspect he has.”

“Wait, really?” Aria asked in surprise. “I was just being facetious.”

“There’s lots of mystery about your Uncle Devon’s former work life,” her mother told her with pursed lips. “He made a lot of money somewhere, and it’s never been clear where. He used to travel all over the world for ‘business’,” her mother made air quotes. “Your dad and I were convinced he worked for the CIA or some other clandestine group.”

“Wow, I had no idea,” Aria murmured in awe.

“We didn’t want to make a big deal of it, in case it brought him any trouble,” her mom explained.

There were several clunking sounds as her uncle used some hydraulic controls to drop the ramps down for the cars. He was just moving toward the ramp when Aria noticed Calypso approach him, her features seeming to glow in the moonlight.

“Hello, Devon. Can I help you with anything?” Calypso asked him tentatively.

Her uncle turned around, his eyes studying her. Even at this distance, Aria could feel the sense of love and affection that Calypso projected around her. Her glowing eyes watched him patiently as she stood in the brisk, Spring mountain air, showing no signs that it was cold outside.

“Sure,” her uncle’s deep voice replied easily. “Can you guide me as I back the car down?”

“I would love to,” she answered with a beatific smile. She walked over behind the trailer and waited as he climbed up and started removing the tarps and started up the first car.

“Sometimes I forget that she doesn’t sleep,” Aria noted quietly from where she and her mother were watching.

“She’s probably used to working on music all night long,” her mother commented thoughtfully. “I wonder how she’s holding up with the routine change in her life. She’s had some very drastic upheavals.”

“I have a feeling that she doesn’t even look back,” Aria said warmly. “I think she was past ready to start another phase of life.”

“I couldn’t help noticing that she’s single,” her mother said suggestively. “I also noticed that you’re single. Does that suggest anything interesting to you?”

“What, that we should go on a double date with someone?” Aria asked dryly.

“You aren’t interested?” her mother asked doubtfully.

“You can’t date the sun,” Aria replied wistfully. “She’s just started to evolve into something that I suspect will be far beyond human. I doubt there is room for a human girlfriend in that future.”

“Not with that attitude,” her mother replied critically. “You need to be more positive. Even if she did move into the stars someday, she’s here right now. Don’t let the opportunity pass you by.”

“It’s not that simple,” she said with a sigh. “I’m pretty sure Clarice is interested too. I swore I would never compete with her over another person.”

“Just share her,” her mother suggested with a shrug. “It’s not like you haven’t gone off the rails already with your life choices recently.”

“Mom!” Aria gasped in shock, her cheeks turning bright red. “I can’t believe you would suggest that!”

Her mom glanced at her with an amused look. “You always were a prude, Aria.”

“I am not,” Aria declared hotly.

“I’m sorry, dear,” her mother replied with a small smile. “But you are. You’ve never even kissed another person and you’re twenty five. If you were ugly, I would understand, but you are stunningly gorgeous, so you have no excuse. You’re just a prude.”

“I’ve just never been with anyone I was interested in kissing,” Aria insisted defensively.

“It doesn’t take a lot of interest in a person to share a kiss,” her mother pointed out dryly. “I know you too well for you to try dissembling with me. I remember when you brought that one girl home in high school, Alice. She was pretty, smart, and absolutely besotted with you. Why didn’t you end up with a kiss in that relationship?”

“She wanted to take things further than I wanted to go,” she muttered with a blush.

“Cause you’re a prude,” her mom said in satisfaction. “You were at the age where exploring those things was natural. It’s not like you were going to get pregnant.”

“I don’t know,” Aria sighed dejectedly. “Maybe I am a prude. Maybe I had too many invasive procedures done to me when I was sick, and now I have a phobia of invasive things.”

Her mother looked at her sympathetically. “Yes, that could certainly be part of it. You’re going to have to push your boundaries though, or you’ll never move past this. If there’s one person I trust to help you move past any trauma, it’s that angel down there.”

Calypso was guiding the last car off of the ramp. Aria was pretty sure it was unnecessary, but it was nice of her uncle to humor her.

“She’s going to be really happy to have some instruments to play again,” Aria murmured fondly.

Her mother looked at the expression on her face and shook her head ruefully. “I’m just going to assume nature will take its course with this.”

“Hmm?” Aria asked absently, her eyes on Calypso.

“Nothing, dear,” her mother replied with a smile.

Calypso approached Clarice’s car and located the harp they had brought with them. She opened the hatchback and gently removed the harp, a look of relief on her face.

“It suits you,” her Uncle Devon noted approvingly.

She looked at him, her eyes searching deep into what Aria knew to be his aura. “Can I play a song for you?”

“I would like that,” Devon smiled with a nod.

“There must be something wrong with him,” Aria told her mother. “I recognize that look. She found something wrong with his aura that she wants to fix.”

“Really?” her mother asked, intrigued.

Calypso began to pluck a melody on the harp, her long fingers deftly climbing along the strings. When she began to sing, her eyes started glowing brighter. Aria had watched her sing and play before, but there was something different now. Her voice was layered with authority, commanding the laws as her voice wove the fabric of a story with her harp. Aria watched, slack jawed, as the ethereal song warped reality around their angel. Tears fell down her cheeks as the sublime beauty of the music struck a chord in her soul. She fell down to her knees as the beauty of that song rocked her soul. Devon had also fallen to his knees, his eyes shining with unshed tears. Aria felt something shift in her uncle, like a snake had been uncoiled from around his soul. He gasped, his eyes going wide as the change in his body left him feeling renewed and full of vitality.

As Calypso’s song ended, Aria noticed Clarice standing on the balcony of her third floor room looking down at Calypso in wonder.

“Wow,” her mother whispered in awe. She was on her knees next to Aria, her cheeks covered in tears. “Just…wow.”

“Yeah,” Aria agreed, wiping her cheeks. “She’s our angel.”

“I’m a believer,” her mother whispered fervently.

Chapter 4

It had taken Aria few hours to get to sleep after Calypso’s performance. Dawn was well under way when she finally fell back to sleep. She woke up a few hours later and felt a warm body pressed against her and an arm around her waist from where she laid on her side. There was no question about who it was; the warm blanket of love wrapping her soul in comfort and safety made it obvious that it was Calypso snuggled up next to her.

“Good morning, Aria,” Calypso greeted her warmly. “How did you sleep?”

It took her several attempts to answer, her mouth completely dry. “Wonderfully. Thank you.”

“Your soul is like a sun warmed meadow,” Calypso told her softly. “It’s like a balm on my soul to be close to you and bask in its warmth.”

Aria swallowed, her mouth turning up at the corners. She ignored the warmth in her cheeks, focusing on Calypso’s words. I could get used to this.

She moved her arm so that her hand was covering Calypso’s hand on her stomach. Some of Calypso’s light blonde hair was draped over Aria’s shoulder and cheek. There was a unique smell to her hair, something Aria couldn’t even find a comparison to describe it. It made her think of crystalline palaces and sparkling rivers filled with sweet water. Aria wished she could freeze this moment in time forever.

She laid there for another fifteen minutes in silence with Calypso, enjoying the proximity of their bodies and the comforting aura permeating the room. It finally ended when a knock sounded at the door before opening.

“Breakfast is read-“ Clarice broke off as she saw them snuggled up together, her eyes going wide.

“Hello, Clarice,” Calypso greeted the other woman softly.

Aria’s face was on fire as she stared back at her sister. Clarice’s face flickered through several emotions quickly. Longing, hurt, fear, and finally, resolve.

“Clarice,” Calypso said firmly. “Can you come over here for a minute?”

Clarice looked like she would rather do anything else, but her feet obeyed the angel’s request. She walked up to the bed, trying to keep her expression blank. Hurt and sadness kept sneaking through her mask of indifference.

Calypso released Aria and sat up on the edge of the bed, about a foot away from where Clarice stood miserably. She reached out both hands and took hold of Clarice’s hands, then gently pulled her forward. She wrapped her arms around Clarice and laid back, pulling Clarice down with her. Aria watched as confusion, hope, and longing flashed across her sister’s face.

“I love both of you,” Calypso said softly, her eyes locked onto Clarice’s eyes. “Is that something you can accept?”

Clarice closed her eyes, relief filling her face. “If it was anyone but Aria, I would not be able to accept it,” she said with a small smile, her eyes still closed.

“I know,” Calypso said gently. She reached up and pulled Clarice’s head down next to hers, embracing her tightly. “I always knew you two were special.”

Aria sat up and tentatively rested her hand on Clarice’s head, brushing her fingers through her dark hair. “Clarice, I’m so sorry for putting you through that.”

“It’s fine,” Clarice murmured contentedly, soaking up the love from Calypso’s aura. “More than fine. I have been worrying about how we were going to deal with this for a while now. It was going to hurt one of us no matter what. Are you okay with this?”

Aria laughed brightly, caressing Clarice’s cheek. “You wouldn’t believe what mom said last night. She asked why I hadn’t made a move on Calypso. I told her that I was pretty sure you had feelings for her too. She asked why we don’t just share her. Can you believe that?”

“Yep, I can believe that,” Clarice said with a wry smile. “She’s not nearly as conservative as you are, Aria.”

“Yeah,” Aria sighed unhappily. “She called me a prude. I guess I kind of am a prude.”

“You were traumatized during your formative years,” Clarice pointed out. “Of course you are a prude. The age you were the most vulnerable they were doing the most invasive things to your body. It would be weird if you weren’t a prude.”

“I guess,” Aria sighed again. “I just don’t know how to stop being a prude.”

“Well, now you have help,” Clarise told her softly. “We’ll ease you into it gently.”

Aria felt her face burn as bright as her hair as Calypso’s glowing eyes watched her from beneath Clarice’s head.

“She’s blushing a sunset, isn’t she?” Clarice asked Calypso with a smile in her voice.

“Two sunsets,” Calypso replied with an indulgent smile.

“Clarice are you going to bring her down for breakfast sometime this year?” their mother’s voice called out from down the stairs.

“No,” Clarice muttered resignedly. “Never gonna leave.”

Calypso squeezed her tightly before releasing her. Clarice sighed again and pushed herself up, her hands next to Calypso’s chest. Her face was inches from Calypso’s face, her hair falling down one side to rest on Calypso’s cheek. “To be continued,” she whispered, then lightly kissed Calypso’s lips before pushing herself up all of the way and standing up.

Aria felt her heart racing as her face burned. Damn, that was hot!

Calypso was still laying on the bed, her eyes wide. She hesitantly touched her lips wonderingly. Her ever present aura was suddenly filled with love, as well as a sense of intense need. That was probably her first kiss.

“Come on, Tweedle Dee,” Clarice told Aria with a roguish wink.

Aria followed her stepsister down the stairs to the veranda on the second floor. Their mother had cooked up her homemade pancakes for breakfast, one of Aria’s favorite foods. There were several round tables around the veranda and a few larger square tables. Ivy covered the trellises and there were herbs in grow boxes scattered throughout the area.

Aria sat next to Clarice at the larger table and began dishing pancakes onto her plate.

“Thanks for the food, Mom,” Clarice said with a vibrant smile. “I’ve so missed these homemade pancakes.”

“Yeah, thanks Mom,” Aria echoed, distractedly. She still felt shellshocked from the events of that morning. It felt surreal. She could still feel the press of Calypso’s body against her own, filling her core with warmth.

“You’re looking chipper,” their mother noted as she observed Clarice with an appraising eye.

Clarice just grinned at their mother as she took a bite of the pancakes.

“Oh,” their mother said, an eyebrow shooting up as she looked over at Aria. “Oh my.”

Aria’s face began competing with her hair, trying to turn more red. She was pretty sure her face won the contest.

“Good morning,” Devon greeted them as he walked into the veranda, saving Aria from her mother’s knowing gaze. “How did everyone sleep?”

“Like a baby,” Clarice said around a mouthful of pancake. “Thanks a lot for bringing our cars!”

“Yes, thank you,” Aria said fervently. “I was so paranoid that someone would steal our instruments.”

“It was my pleasure,” Devon answered with an easy smile as he loaded up a plate full of pancakes and sat down across from them. “It’s good to see you two again.”

“You too, Uncle,” Aria grinned, remembering their last meeting. He had joined them for Thanksgiving and Clarice had switched his sweet potatoes out for cantaloupe. “Had any cantaloupe lately?”

He glared at Clarice in mock anger, chuckling darkly. “She’ll get what’s coming to her.”

Clarice’s face took on an innocent cast, made more pronounced by the recent changes from Calypso’s tears. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“I’m sure you don’t,” his tone was dry as he shook his head ruefully. Clarice had always been the joker in the family. Very few family get-togethers ended without at least a few of her pranks finding a mark.

“Is dad going to come out here too?” Clarice asked their mother hopefully.

“We’re still debating that,” their mother answered with a frown. “We don’t want him missing work, and we want everything to look normal on the home front. We also don’t want someone following him up here. If he does end up visiting, we’ll have to come up with a way to shake anyone who might be following, especially after you three made front page news again today.”

Aria groaned. She had been too afraid to look at the news. She didn’t want to see herself in the videos she was sure were uploaded after the biker accident.

“What did it say?” Clarice asked curiously, her playful eyes intrigued.

“It seems there was a gas explosion at your apartment,” her mother told them carefully. “Apparently it only affected your apartment, and not the surrounding apartments.”

“We don’t have gas in that apartment,” Clarice objected indignantly. She shook her head in disgust. “That’s the best story they could come up with? What a freaking joke.”

Devon laughed at her reply, nodding his agreement.

“They discussed your incident with the biker and the video showing Calypso bringing him back to life,” she continued. She glanced at Aria with a wry smile “You look pissed in the video, by the way. Anyway, people were looking for your car all over the county. Someone found your address and discovered that your apartment had exploded around the same time that you were dealing with that biker. That really got the conspiracy theories going. Most people believe that some kind of shadow government is after Calypso, or a pharmaceutical company that doesn’t want her healing people. The news initially claimed that you were involved in a hit and run with the biker, but there were multiple dash cam videos that showed the entire story, so they had to retract the claim.”

“I wonder what’s going through that biker’s head right now,” Clarice wondered idly as she leaned back in her chair with her hands behind her head. She had made short work of her pancakes.

“He was interviewed by one of the news stations about his experience,” their mother said, shaking her head derisively. “About the only thing he remembered was glowing eyes staring at him before he crashed.”

“I hope he’s learned his lesson and stops letting his hormones do his thinking,” Aria declared darkly. “He could have gotten other people killed with that stupidity.”

“There are several televangelists that are saying her miracles are the work of the devil,” their mother continued with a snort. “Because the devil likes to save children from terminal illnesses, apparently.”

“I’ll bet they are feeling pretty threatened right now,” Aria chuckled evilly. “They can’t have someone performing actual miracles, especially without asking for money.”

“Someone has been trying to trace her digital forensic activity to build a chronological timeline,” their mother said as she began cleaning up the table. “So far, they have claimed she must be at least fifty years old.”

“The religions are going to get really messy if the world discovers that she is an angel,” Aria noted with a satisfied smile as she also leaned back in her chair with her hands behind her head.

“She’s an angel then?” Devon asked intently.

“We think so,” Aria confirmed. “though not the religious angels. We think there must have been others of her kind long ago that spawned the stories of angels. She can’t remember anything before her fifth birthday after World War One.”

His eyes widened at the revelation of how old she was. “So, she was a child at one point,” he said musingly. “She definitely wouldn’t be an angel in the religious sense, because there are no child angels in their lore.”

“She also doesn’t require food, water, or sleep,” their mother told Devon. “She seems to have some kind of bond to an energy source she calls light. She doesn’t know how a lot of it works, acting by intuition for most of what she does.”

“She also has some strange ridges below her shoulder blades that I’m certain are for wings,” Clarice told him firmly. “I don’t know if they just haven’t grown in yet, or if she lost them as a child in whatever event led to her being found by her adoptive parents. She can see auras. She says our names are engraved on our auras. Sick people have some kind of red and black cords wrapped around their aura. When she sings, it shatters, and they recover. I suspect what she sees is metaphorical, and that her mind is making visual manifestations to simplify the underlying process of healing.”

“She has lived an extremely isolated life, with almost no human interaction outside of the hospitals where she heals people,” Aria told him. “She struggles with a lot of colloquialisms, maxims, and slang. She’s spent almost all of her time constantly making music and healing children. She had no idea that her YouTube channel was known to the world because she just used it to upload music she would make at night while mortals slept.”

“She really didn’t know she was the most famous musician on earth?” Devon asked in amazement. “She really was isolated.”

“Oh yeah, she’s filthy rich too,” Aria added with a small grin. “She invested in oil in the nineteen twenties. She withdraws the interest on her savings account every year, which is about two hundred grand.”

“When we talked to her at the hospital the day before all of this blew up, she had no idea that over a hundred years had gone by,” Clarice added with a chuckle. “She had no idea that she still looked like a twenty year old. That’s the level of obliviousness we were dealing with. When we were on our way home from the hospital we saw the reddit post exposing her, so we rushed over to her house and convinced her to come with us. We were convinced evil scientists and corrupt governments would try to abduct her and put her in a lab.”

“That was good thinking on your part,” Devon told them approvingly. “You two are pretty smart for how young you are.”

“We read too many novels that depicted rogue intelligence agencies and powerful billionaires,” Clarice shrugged, glancing at Aria. The two of them had both been voracious readers growing up. They always shared any good books they found with each other. “I’m pretty sure they weren’t that far off from what happens in the real world.”

“What did Calypso heal you of?” Aria asked Devon curiously. “Just tell me to mind my own business if I’m prying too much.”

“I would have had to fabricate a lie for you yesterday,” Devon laughed humorlessly. “I spent a lot of years working for a contracting agency that the world governments use to handle their dirty work. They have some pretty advanced technological gizmos. One of them is a shot full of nanobots they pump into our system. They are programmed to monitor our communication at all times. If we say anything that could implicate the agency, these little bots release a toxin that shuts our heart down.”

“Oh my god!” their mother gasped in horror. “That sounds awful!”

“They listened to everything you said?” Clarise asked in amazement. “What if you were out of any satellite or radio tower range?”

“The nanobots weren’t connected to an outside network,” he replied, glancing up as Calypso joined them. “There are enough of them that they form an artificial neural network. It’s not AI, but it’s close enough. It is programmed to monitor biological signs for duplicity whenever conversation regarding the agency arises. It’s basically machine learning.”

“How often are their false positives?” Clarise asked in dismay. “Doesn’t it kill a lot of people by mistaking intent?”

“It used to be a pretty high error rate,” he nodded grimly. “They have gotten pretty good with the technology over the years though, so they don’t have very many false positives any more. The bots can also simulate the effect of pharmaceuticals, releasing dopamine or shutting down pain receptors. I wasn’t a combat specialist, but I understand that it helps them keep those operatives under control by managing their moods based on the situation.”

“Wow, it sounds just like some of the sci-fi books I’ve read,” Aria observed with a kind of sick fascination. “I always figured they were pretty far ahead of what’s available to the public, but that’s basically mind control territory.”

“That’s the holy grail of any government,” Devon sighed with a disgusted shake of his head. “Complete control.”

“So, Calypso destroyed the nanobots inside of you?” their mother asked hopefully.

“Yep,” he nodded solemnly. “It was an odd feeling. I’ve had them interfering with my natural moods for so long that I recognized immediately when they were gone.”

“I’m surprised they haven’t tried pushing that technology on the whole population,” Clarice muttered darkly.

“What makes you think they haven’t?” Devon asked her with a raised eyebrow. “Can you think of any recent historical events where they convinced everyone to inject themselves with a special medicine?”

“Oh my god, seriously?” Clarice asked, her eyes wide with horror.

“I’m just making assumptions based on what they did with us,” he shrugged. “I can’t imagine they didn’t do that though, with an opportunity like that.”

“I have an idea,” Calypso said quietly.

All eyes turned to the beautiful woman as she stared out at the beautiful scenery around them.

“I’m not sure if we have the technological knowledge to do it, but we may be able to recruit those who do,” she spoke thoughtfully.

“What’s your idea?” Aria asked her gently.

“We discussed the idea of healing people through YouTube with a live audience when we were back at your apartment,” Calypso reminded her, absently brushing some of her long blonde hair behind an ear. “I can’t really go to the children’s hospitals, or an audience hall. I don’t know enough about the internet and how they can track you to know if this would work, but if we could host a live event on YouTube and notify the hospitals ahead of time, we could attempt to heal the children still. I’m not sure why, exactly, but I get the feeling that it will work. However, we would need to be untraceable, or we would be back where we started. I have a feeling that we can trust the kids that I’ve helped over the years. There are enough of them that I think there are probably some who specialize in computers and could help keep us hidden.”

“Cyber espionage specialists,” Devon nodded thoughtfully. “If we could recruit some of your former patients with the requisite skills, we could definitely keep anything from being traced back to places we don’t want it to go.”

“That’s brilliant, Calypso!” Aria praised her exuberantly. “You could reach a much wider audience too.”

“I feel like my abilities have increased significantly in the last two days,” Calypso observed with an affectionate smile at Aria and Clarice. “Mostly thanks to the two of you.”

“I have some contacts that could help us as well,” Devon offered musingly. “Especially if you can clear out their nanobots like you did for me.”

“Absolutely,” Calypso agreed confidently.

“Just thinking down the line a little here,” Devon said thoughtfully. “But if broadcasting live works for healing, you could potentially cripple the agency by clearing out the nanobots in contractors throughout the world. A lot of them would turn on the agency, given the chance to do so without instantly dying of heart attacks.”

“Are they the ones that blew up our apartment?” Clarice asked shrewdly.

“Almost assuredly,” Devon nodded grimly. “They probably already see you as a threat. They may have more intelligence about who and what you are, which may have them spooked.”

“What am I?” Calypso asked with a puzzled crease to her brow.

“You’re an angel,” Aria told her with an exasperated sigh. “I know we’ve told you several times.”

“I thought you were just being sweet,” Calypso said in confusion. “You actually think I’m an angel, like mythological angels?”

“Yes, just like mythological angels,” Aria confirmed. “We think your kind are where the myths came from.”

“Oh,” Calypso replied with a troubled frown. “So, you don’t think I’m human?”

“No,” Aria said slowly. “Does that bother you?”

“I’m worried about the implications if I’m not,” Calypso replied, closing her eyes. “How did I get here? What are the other angels like? Why aren’t they helping humans if they do exist?”

“It’s possible you are from some other world or dimension,” Clarice told her with a reassuring smile. “Maybe you got stuck in a snarl between dimensions, or some kind of accident happened.”

“I just don’t want to get taken away to some other world or dimension,” Calypso sighed with a small frown. “This is my home. I want to help people. I need to help people. I don’t want someone showing up from another world and trying to take me away. I couldn’t bear to lose the two of you. Any of you.”

“I think you’ll be okay,” Aria told her confidently, her heart swelling with love. “It’s been over a hundred years. If someone hasn’t shown up looking for you by now, they probably aren’t going to.”

“I suppose you are probably right,” Calypso relaxed, the look of worry in her large, innocent eyes disappearing.

“How do we want to go about contacting former medical patients?” Clarice asked reflectively. “Should we try to get someone at the hospital to cooperate with us, or should we start some kind of front group on a social media site and request all of the people who have been healed by Calypso join it? Then we could contact them privately.

“I think that last one is a great idea,” Aria said eagerly. “We had already talked about forming a group of musicians from former patients to put on a charity fundraiser before we talked to Calypso. I have a feeling that most of the people that Calypso healed are going to have music in their soul and know how to play at least one instrument. We could engage with them on the same basis as before. We could probably even convince someone else to be in charge of recruiting former patients so that it isn’t all falling on us.”

“First off, we need to make sure we have a secure channel of communication for engaging with the outside world,” Devon said, pointing at his phone. “I have a faraday cage around the study to prevent any signal from getting out from devices, so if you need to turn your phones back on for some reason, do it there. Our internet is beamed up from a radio tower and through a few private relays, so our location will look like somewhere in town for any internet use here. We’ll use a voice app on the computers for any phone calls or one of the IP phones. Don’t use your own laptops on the internet, just use the ones in the house. They have a locked down version of Linux free of the exploits used by the various intelligence agencies. They have standard web browsers, so you should be able to get into any social media sites you need to access to set up your program.”

“Won’t they be able to find and track the main base station that is providing the internet in town and follow it back here?” Clarice asked in concern.

“We aren’t, technically speaking, using a legal internet service,” he said blandly. “The main base station is on a motorized mount that scans the area up to a mile for residential WIFI. It hacks the encryption and saves it as one of the usable profiles. It’s constantly changing which WIFI it pulls from every five minutes. To anyone tracking our IP packets, it would appear to be coming from houses all over the city.”

“Is this what you did for your contract work?” their mother asked curiously.

“More or less,” he nodded. “I worked in a lot of server farms as well, since that’s where all of the juicy data is stored.”

“Okay, I’m going to go see if there are already any groups we can join,” Clarice informed them, standing up. “There is no point reinventing the wheel if someone has already created a group with the former patients.”

“I guess I’ll start calling the hospitals,” Aria sighed, her face full of dread.

“Aren’t redheads supposed to be extroverts automatically?” Clarice grinned at her. “I’m not sure you are an authentic redhead.”

“And we’re fiery tempered, hotheaded, bold, and brash, right?” Aria asked with a patient sigh.

“You said it,” Clarice’s grin widened.

Aria put her face in her hands and groaned. “I’m being discriminated against by a Snow White clone.”

Clarice’s grin vanished. “Snow White?” she spluttered. “Now you’re accusing me of rooming with a bunch of short dudes that I love cleaning up after?”

“Wow, that’s what she took away from being called Snow White?” Devon asked mildly. “I thought the most beautiful woman in all of the land would have been the first trait listed.”

“I thought she was saying that she’s super gullible when it comes to poisoned apples,” their mother noted dryly.

“Maybe she was calling her a lazy lay about that just sleeps all of the time,” Devon suggested.

“You two are mixing up your Disney movies,” Clarice told them acidly. “That’s Sleeping Beauty.”

“Okay, princess,” Devon replied blandly.

“I’m going to make you pay for that, Uncle,” Clarice threatened ominously.

“I’ll make sure to check my apples for poison,” he assured her, his dark brown eyes sparkling with amusement.

“You better check more than apples,” she warned him with a glower.

“Where are the laptops located, Uncle Devon?” Aria asked, looking around.

“They’re in the library,” he replied, his face becoming serious. “It’s on the first floor on the back side of the house.”

“I can’t believe this place has a library,” Aria said dreamily. “This place is so cool.”

“I’m glad you like it,” Devon smiled as Aria and Clarice started walking to the library.

“Seriously, what did you mean by Snow White clone?” Clarice demanded as they walked out of the room.

Aria heard their mom and uncle start chuckling as they left earshot.

“I meant that you have gorgeous hair, the perfect pretty girl face, and a lot of men falling over themselves to get your attention,” Aria replied with a sigh. “It’s just not fair.”

“You want men falling over themselves to get your attention?” Clarice asked with a snigger.

“Ewe, gross, no,” Aria said in disgust. “I’m just jealous, I guess.”

“You jealous of me?” Clarice said in outrage. “Do you know how much I would kill for natural red hair like yours? You don’t even have the typical orange hair that everyone calls red; yours is bright freaking red! It’s so not fair.”

“I feel like we’re both just fishing for compliments now,” Aria giggled infectiously.

“Damn right,” Clarice grunted with a sidelong look at Aria. “We’re going to be hermits for a while, so we have to get our compliments where we can.”

“Yeah, I guess we probably are going to be pretty isolated for a while,” Aria contemplated idly. “It’s a little surreal that we are hiding out in a cabin in the mountains from rabid YouTube fans and shadow organizations. Still, at least I’m with the people I love.”

Clarice shoulder bumped her lightly in response as they arrived at the library. It was two stories tall, with ladders on tracks around the room.

“Okay, I’m totally fine with the life of the hermit,” Clarice said in awe. “Maybe I won’t poison Uncle Devon after all.”

There were several desks throughout the library, as well as comfortable looking couches and chairs. Each desk had a laptop on it, along with an IP phone.

“You go look for existing groups,” Clarice told her, pity on her face. “I’ll call the hospitals.”

“Really?” Aria gasped hopefully.

“Yeah, really,” Clarice replied airily.

Aria tackled Clarice in an embrace, squeezing her tightly. “You are the best sister,” Aria said in elation. “I was really not looking forward to that.”

Clarice’s eyes softened at the powerful response to her offer. “You are a goose. Even so, I’ll always be here to save you from yourself.”

“You always are,” Aria beamed, releasing Clarice. “Thank you.”

“Any time, Aria,” Clarice smiled at her affectionately.

The two of them spent the next several hours making phone calls and searching social media. Devon interrupted them to let them know that their mother had prepared lunch out on the veranda.

“She is the best freaking mom ever,” Clarice declared as she stood up from the desk.

“By a wide margin,” Aria agreed, her stomach rumbling. “We need to do something nice for mom. She’s really bent over backwards for us.”

“Speaking of people in need of attention,” Clarice frowned. “How is Calypso doing?”

Devon smiled slightly at their words. “Calypso has been getting all of the musical instruments set up in the theater room. I think she was going through withdrawals.”

“I’ll bet she has,” Clarice said fondly. “I can’t wait to watch her lay down some tracks.”

“I’m definitely not going to miss that,” Aria said fervently.

When they reached the veranda, the smell of expertly seasoned rice and stir-fry filled her nostrils.

“I really miss the days of gourmet meals every day,” Aria said wistfully. “Mom makes the best food.”

“We were spoiled for too long,” Clarice grimaced slightly. “Everything we eat anywhere else tastes second rate. Especially our own food.”

“Your mom definitely has a magic hand when it comes to food,” Devon agreed heartily. “She started cooking when she was six and just kept at it. We used to dread her meals growing up. By the time she was about twelve though, we started requesting her to cook instead of our mom. She’s always loved cooking, and it certainly shows.”

They quickly dished up their lunch from the serving table and sat down to eat. It was almost like old times, if you could forget that the shadow government wanted them dead.

Calypso joined them as they sat down, her glowing eyes showing a sense of satisfaction.

“Did you get all of the instruments set up?” Aria asked Calypso.

“Yes,” Calypso replied with an excited smile. “I was going to do some recording in a little bit. I wanted to see if you and Clarice would like to join me and help with some of the instruments and vocals.”

“Would I like to join the most famous musician on earth in a jam session,” Aria pondered with a twinkle in her eyes. “Yeah, I think I most definitely do.”

“Words cannot even convey how excited I am,” Clarice said excitedly, her eyes shining with anticipation.

When Calypso looked at Clarice, her cheeks colored slightly, and she looked back at Aria and smiled. “Thank you. Both of you.” Her eyes darted back to Clarice and the blush was back.

Aria had to use every ounce of will power she had not to giggle hysterically at the blushing angel. One little peck on the lips from Clarice and she was as bashful as a school girl. Clarice shared a look with Aria. Clarice winked mischievously before looking back down at her food. Aria had a feeling their angel was going to get more than a peck in the near future.

“Any luck with the hospitals?” their mother asked her.

“Yeah, I had some luck,” Clarice answered wryly. “I got a handful of names and numbers.”

Their mother laughed and shook her head with a resigned look at Aria.

“How about the social media search?” their mother asked with a raised eyebrow at Aria.

“I found a ton of existing groups,” Aria answered eagerly. “There are a lot of angry former patients out there. Apparently, the fact that someone is trying to kill her is pretty common knowledge. They are organizing protests and threatening to riot in Washington DC if the government doesn’t reign in whichever group is trying to kill her. The NSA and CIA are both claiming ignorance of any involvement and the senate is trying to ignore the problem altogether. I have a video call with some people tomorrow morning. I tried to narrow it down to people who seemed more responsible and had organizational skills. I didn’t tell them who I was, of course. I just asked if we could have a quick video conference to discuss some plans we would like to share. Once they see my face, I think they’ll recognize me from the news and be cooperative. I was thinking I could have Calypso join me if necessary. I’m hoping we can put some of them in charge of recruiting additional help so that we can just let them know what we need when we need it, and they can make it happen.”

“Well done, Tweedle Dee,” Clarice congratulated her. “It was probably a good thing that we switched tasks.”

Aria grinned at her exuberantly. “It was actually kind of fun. There are so many people ready to stand up for Calypso that it makes things a lot easier for us.”

“That sounds promising,” Devan said approvingly. “I still think the key to getting us some real breathing room is finding a way to get rid of the nanobots in other contractors so that they have more immediate concerns on their hands.”

“Calypso still has her channel,” Clarice pointed out. “If we spring a live event on the population without much warning then she could probably push out the cure before anyone could pull the plug on the internet. I’m assuming they can pull the plug on the internet.”

“They control all of the backbone routers that connect everybody,” Devon nodded his agreement. “Without those, the world wide web is no longer world wide.”

After finishing lunch, Aria and Clarice followed Calypso back to the theater room where she had set up the instruments. Calypso continued to avoid eye contact with Clarice, blushing profusely the few times she did. Aria shared another amused glance with Clarice.

Aria watched in fascination as Calypso expertly set up her studio applications on her pc and prepared the tracks for recording. There were a lot of buttons and settings in her studio application.

Calypso recorded the drums for her first track, in order to provide timing for the rest of the instruments. She wasn’t just a skilled drummer; she was a true virtuoso. Her timing and technique were better than anything Aria had ever seen.

She moved on to the second track, a bass guitar, and made the air come alive as her fingers flew up and down the fretboard. Aria had watched some of the interviews online where they critiqued Calypso’s guitar skills. There were very few guitarists who could play some of her more complicated songs. Her fingers would blur as she moved up and down the fretboard, making sounds with harmonics and slides that actually blended with the song and were not just fancy artifacts.

After she had added around eight tracks, she asked them to play the cellos with her for the next track. Aria and Clarice quickly learned the notes Calypso wanted them to play. Calypso started the track recording and then they were playing with Calypso. The thought made Aria so giddy that she nearly fumbled the bow of her cello, barely recovering in time to keep the song going. Clarice played the viola while Calypso played her antique violin. It was poignant and beautiful. Aria couldn’t believe Calypso could just pull these melodies out of the ether and arrange them so perfectly. She never had to re-record a track. She would play it perfectly every time.

It was the vocals that really slammed home the reality that they were playing with Calypso. Her voice split off into harmonies and she effortlessly moved from note to note with the precision and grace of a…well, an angel.

Aria and Clarice joined in on her vocals, adding their soprano and alto to the array of vocal tracks. The end result was a masterpiece of soul stripping beauty. Calypso’s aura blanketed the area in emotion as they played, showing the passion she felt as she sang.

When they had finished, Aria was trembling from the intensity of the experience. She felt exalted, like she had been taken to the heavens and then returned to earth with the memory of that slice of paradise. It was more like a powerful religious experience than a recreational activity.

“That was amazing, Calypso,” Clarice told her in tones of deepest respect. “You are such an inspiration.”

“Thank you,” Calypso replied shyly, trying and failing to maintain eye contact with Clarice.

It was well into evening when they left the makeshift studio. They had a gourmet dinner and briefly discussed their plans for the video call the next morning.

“Aria, can I talk to you?” their mother asked after Clarice got up to go to her room. Calypso had said she wanted to go up to the widows walk on top of the third story and enjoy the view of the valley in the distance.

“Sure, what’s up mom?” she asked curiously.

“I’m just wondering what all of the blushing is about when Calypso looks at Clarice,” she said with a slight smile. “I can tell by the way you are almost giggling yourself silly every time it happens that you know what is going on.”

Aria started giggling as she thought about the interactions. “Clarice gave her the barest of feather kisses this morning,” Aria informed her, laughter still thick in her voice. “I think it opened another door in her mind or something. She was all about hugs and snuggles before, but it was all completely platonic. I don’t think she even understands what kissing is, let alone the rest of it. When Clarice kissed her, it seems to have awoken something inside of her that she doesn’t know how to deal with.”

“Are you sure she has a gender?” her mother asked with a frown. “You know in the mythological stories they were genderless.”

“I’m pretty sure that was just Christianity putting it’s spin on things because they viewed sex as a necessary evil. Since angels couldn’t be evil, they had to make them genderless. I would be very surprised if there aren’t passionate parts on Calypso.”

Her mother rolled her eyes at her terminology. “Well, be careful with her,” her mother said cautiously. “If this is all new to her then don’t drop her in the deep end before she can swim.”

“You’re talking to the wrong child,” Aria said pointedly. “You need to be having this conversation with Clarice.”

“You’re probably right,” her mother agreed. “Okay, just take it slow with her.”

“Did you send her up to my room this morning?” Aria asked suddenly. “It seems oddly coincidental that she would show up in my bed the morning after our talk.”

“I didn’t tell her anything,” her mother put her hands up defensively. “Why, what happened?”

“I woke up with her spooning me,” Aria said dryly. “Then Clarice walked in and looked like a kicked puppy when she saw us. Calypso convinced her to come over, then she pulled her down into a hug on the bed. She asked Clarice if she would be willing to share her with me.”

“Really?” her mother asked thoughtfully. “I wonder if she heard us talking last night. Do you know how good her hearing is?”

“No. I guess it never occurred to me to ask,” Aria answered musingly. “I’ll ask her tonight. Maybe she heard you and thought that what you had in mind was snuggling.”

“That would make sense,” her mother said with a wry smile. “She is still extremely naïve about so much in life.”

“I’ll make sure to let Clarice know to take it slow,” Aria told her reassuringly.

She left her mother, intending to return to the library for some additional research. She felt Calypso’s aura somewhere up above her, filled with confusion and uncertainty.

She sighed and decided to go up to the widows walk to clear her head. As she emerged from the ladder she found Calypso staring out at the moonlit night with a puzzled look on her face.

“Hey,” Aria greeted her with a smile. “Penny for your thoughts?”

Calypso blinked, and Aria could tell she was trying to translate another colloquialism. “I’m just feeling a little odd,” Calypso replied in a troubled voice.

“How so?” Aria asked companionably.

“I’ve been feeling a strange sensation in my abdomen,” she replied slowly. “Almost like impatience. It’s hard to define. It’s like there is something I need, but I’m not getting it, and I don’t know what it is.”

“Interesting,” Aria said carefully. “Are there any other odd sensations occurring?”

Calypso nodded slightly, her cheeks flushing. “I’m not sure why, but it’s uncomfortable to talk about. I’ve never really understood the concept of people having uncomfortable conversations until now.”

“Let me try to walk you around the boundary of the things that are uncomfortable, without actually touching on them specifically,” Aria suggested, glancing at the nervous woman with a calculating eye. “Are you feeling new sensations in parts of your body, like heat or longing?”

Calypso blinked, staring at Aria in surprise. “You know what this is?”

Aria carefully hid her smile before answering. “I think I might know, depending on your physiology. How much do you know about angels?”

“Just what they taught me in church when I was younger,” Calypso replied reflectively. “They were agents of a god that had a lot of power. They played trumpets and had wings. Some of them seemed like messengers, while others were destroyers of civilizations.”

“Okay, well there are some other attributes that they claimed angels had as well,” Aria hesitated as she fumbled her way through phrasing the question in a way that wouldn’t be embarrassing. “According to the Catholic lore, angels were androgynous. Like, they didn’t have the things that differentiate men from woman.”

Calypso looked at her in confusion. “You mean like breasts?”

“Yeeees,” Aria replied slowly, drawing out the word. “And the other bits down below.”

“What bits down below?” Calypso asked curiously.

Aria stared back at her helplessly. Oh man, maybe they are genderless!

“You know,” Aria gestured down between her hips. “Like in the nether regions.”

“Nether regions?” Calypso replied in bewilderment. “Like Amsterdam?”

Aria facepalmed and blurted out, “like men have ding dongs and women don’t.”

“Ding dongs?” Calypso repeated, her brows creased. “Those packaged cakes?”

“I’m talking about a penis!” Aria growled in exasperation.

“Okay…” Calypso frowned in thought. “I know I’ve heard that word somewhere when I was younger, but I’m not sure what it means.”

Aria’s face was bright red as she floundered. “Do you know how babies are made?”

“I’ve never really thought about it,” Calypso admitted, glancing at her red face. Her aura was probably going haywire, adding to Calypso’s confusion.

“Oh man,” Aria breathed in embarrassment. “I am so the wrong person to have this conversation with you.”

“Who would be a good person?” Calypso asked, eyeing her curiously.

“Well, I would say your mother, but since she’s unavailable I’m stuck with the task,” Aria said with a grimace. “Okay, I’m just going to bite the bullet and get very explicit, embarrassing the hell out of both of us.”

“Okay,” Calypso said warily, her face full of cautious curiosity.

“Right between your legs on your hips, is it just smooth skin, or do you have a hole there?” Aria blurted out quickly, treating it like a band-aid to be torn off swiftly.

Calypso’s face flushed bright red as she stared back at Aria in mortification. “Oh.”

“Yes, oh,” Aria buried her burning face in her hands in defeat.

“Um, yeah,” Calypso muttered almost too quiet to here. “It’s not smooth skin.”

“Well, that’s good to know,” Aria grumbled into her hands. “Cause that would have been really weird.”

“What does that have to do with my feeling weird?” Calypso asked after a while.

“Oh gods,” Aria almost wept. “It’s going to be the whole birds and the bees conversation.”

“Your saying this weird feeling has something to do with birds and bees?” Calypso asked doubtfully.

Aria took a deep breath before speaking. “Okay, girls have holes, guys have penises,” Aria told her, trying to keep her voice clinical as her face lit up like a sunset again. “That’s the real difference between men and woman.”

Aria sighed and cursed Clarice for getting her stuck in this situation. She spent the next few minutes explaining in graphic detail how babies were conceived. Calypso’s face had a look of revulsion as Aria finished.

“Isn’t that violating?” Calypso asked in disgust.

“Yeah, it is,” Aria agreed with a nod. “But that’s how the world works, unless you’re a fish.”

“A fish?” Calypso prompted questioningly.

Aria explained how fish did it.

“Why don’t we all do it like that?” Calypso asked approvingly. “That seems a lot less invasive.”

“I haven’t got a clue,” Aria replied, shaking her head. “But apparently, nature decided we needed a different way since we crawled out of the seas.”

“How are there even new babies made?” Calypso asked doubtfully. “Why would anyone submit to something so invasive?”

“Nature found a way to make us want to do that too,” Aria replied with a sigh. Her cheeks had finally stopped lighting up the night like a beacon. As she continued, they quickly filled with color again. “The act of procreating is very pleasurable, so people do it for that aspect of it.”

“Oh,” Calypso replied, her cheeks going red as well.

They stood staring out at the landscape in silence for several minutes before Calypso finally spoke again.

“I’m still not sure how this is related to me feeling odd,” Calypso said with a sideways glance at Aria.

“Well, part of nature’s method to motivate people to, um, do it is by making the body release hormones that make you feel attracted to someone,” Aria said carefully. “In humans, those urges typically start at puberty, right before our teenage years. We start feeling attracted to certain people. I don’t know how it works for angels. Maybe it is based on reactions to events, rather than age.”

“What kind of events,” Calypso asked awkwardly.

“I don’t know,” Aria teased exaggeratedly. “Maybe being kissed by someone…”

“Oh,” Calypso said again, her hand unconsciously reaching up to touch her lips.

“Does the odd feeling happen when you are around Clarice?” Aria asked delicately.

Calypso nodded silently.

“Well, now you know why,” Aria told her with a sigh, feeling like she had run in an awkward marathon.

“Because I want to procreate with Clarice?” she asked faintly.

“Well, not procreate,” Aria corrected with a short laugh. “You have to do it with a man to procreate. Clarice doesn’t have a penis. With Clarice, it would for the intimacy. You know, for the pleasure factor. Experiencing that kind of pleasure with another person is supposed to be another expression of love.”

“Have you done this thing before?” Calypso asked curiously.

“Um, no,” Aria admitted with an awkward cough. “I’ve never been with someone I feel close enough with to do that.”

“So, this is something you only do with people you are close to?” Calypso asked thoughtfully.

“Theoretically,” Aria frowned. “Though there are a lot of horn dogs that just screw everyone they come across.”

Calypso’s brows furrowed as she tried to translate Aria’s sentence. “Horn dogs?”

“I need to give you a crash course on pop culture,” Aria told her ruefully. “Horn dogs are what you call people who think about nothing but sex. Sex being the act of procreating.”

“So, it isn’t a matter of intimacy for horn dogs,” Calypso stated.

“Correct,” Aria nodded, feeling like there was a light at the end of the tunnel.

Calypso gazed at Aria speculatively.

“What?” Aria asked, feeling a sudden foreboding.

Calypso continued staring at her, looking down at her lips. Aria swallowed, feeling her mouth suddenly go dry. “Have you ever kissed a person?”

Aria shook her head, feeling too tongue tied to speak.

Calypso’s glowing eyes began glowing slightly brighter as she stepped into Aria’s personal space. “Would it be wrong for me to kiss you? We are close, are we not?”

Aria felt her knees go weak as the other woman stared at her intently. She was clearly reading her aura, which she knew was probably begging for her to proceed.

She slowly put her face toward Aria, her eyes flickering around Aria’s face. Aria felt like she had been frozen to the spot as Calypso’s soft lips parted. As her lips touched Aria’s lips, she felt like a lightning bolt had zapped her soul. Unbidden, her arms wrapped around Calypso and pulled her close as her sudden need shut down her fear. She let out a soft moan as their lips melded together. The aura that Calypso projected changed from its normal loving affection to something much more passionate.

Calypso pulled back with a gasp, her irises swirling like a nebula. She stared down at Aria with a deep blush on her cheeks and a radiant smile on her face. “So, this is what intimacy feels like.”

Aria clung to her tightly, her knees too weak to stand on her own. She took deep breaths as she stared at Calypso with desire filled eyes. “Yeah, I think that was pretty intimate.”

“Do you two want to tone it down a little?” Clarice’s voice called up to them from below the ladder. “Or figure out how to retract your aura so that the rest of us aren’t watching.”

Calypso’s eyes went wide and her face scarlet with mortification as she stared at Aria in chagrin.

“Don’t worry about it,” Aria told her softly. “They can just deal with it.”

So saying, she pulled Calypso’s head back down for another round.

XXXXX

“So this is awkward,” Clarice said to her mother as they sat in the veranda observing the starry sky. “I think she needs to figure out some aura control, if that’s a thing.”

“Let them have their fun,” her mother chided dryly. “It’s Aria’s first kiss, after all. Calypso’s second, from what I hear.”

“If you can call the first one a kiss,” Clarice snorted. “I barely touched her lips.”

“It was apparently enough to set her blushing every time she looked at you,” her mother noted with a chuckle.

“I can’t believe Aria got up the nerve to kiss her,” Clarice said, shaking her head in wonder.

“I expect it was the other way around,” her mother said thoughtfully. “Aria is too much of a prude to initiate a kiss on her own.”

“Yeah, she really is,” Clarice agreed with a fond smile. “I just wish we could have recorded her expression in the events that led up to it. I’m sure it was epic.”

There was a sudden flash of light that turned the night to day, illuminating the entire mountain range around them. A deep booming noise rattled their teeth and shattered some of the glasses. The aura above them that had been filled with passion suddenly exploded with an intensity of emotion that nearly knocked the two of them out.

“What the hell was that?” Clarice asked groggily as she tried to put her brain back in her head.

“Aria,” her mother said in a worried voice. She stumbled to her feet and lurched drunkenly toward the door.

Clarice followed behind, trying to regain her equilibrium as the mental gut punch slowly faded away. They became steadier as they moved closer to the ladder that led to the widows walk. When they emerged at the top, they found Calypso in Aria’s arms, unconscious.

“What happened?” their mother demanded urgently. “Are you okay?”

“We were just kissing, and she suddenly exploded with light,” Aria replied in a tremulous voice. “Then she passed out. She is insanely light now too.”

Clarice stared as Aria held the unconscious angel in her arms without any strain. “She evolved again.”

“What?” Aria and their mother said simultaneously.

“She’s done it before,” Clarice reminded them as she stared intently at Calypso. “Last time it made her eyes start glowing.”

“You mean after the back massage?” Aria asked, understanding dawning in her green eyes.

“Exactly,” Clarice confirmed with a nod. “Intense emotional experiences seem to trigger evolutionary leaps in her body.”

“First her eyes, and now her weight?” their mother asked musingly. “I have a feeling those wings you theorized about will eventually make an appearance. She would need to be a lot lighter before wings did her any good.”

Devon had arrived part way through their mother’s statement. His eyes were wide as he stared at them in concern. “Was anybody hurt?”

“Just my brain,” Clarice griped, rubbing her temples. “That felt like a pan galactic gargle blaster.”

“A what?” their mother asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Come on,” Clarice demanded in a pained voice. “Don’t tell me you haven’t read Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy!”

“Don’t panic,” Devon said in an amused tone.

“He gets it!” Clarice declared triumphantly, pointing at her uncle.

“Did you feel like your brain was slapped by an angry elephant?” their mother asked Aria curiously. “You seem less affected than us.”

“All I felt was a weird sense of de je vu and a sense of vertigo,” Aria answered, her worried eyes still on Calypso. “Is she going to be all right?”

“I’m guessing her brain is just rebooting,” their mother said mildly as she studied the unconscious angel.

She hadn’t even finished speaking before Calypso’s eyes opened. She blinked at them in confusion as they peered at her concernedly. “What happened?”

“You lit the place up like a Christmas tree and then passed out,” Clarice told her cheerily. “It was pretty epic. How do you feel?”

Calypso’s eyes were no longer just glowing; the irises were constantly swirling like the spiral arms of a galaxy. She stared off into the distance for a moment before replying.

“I feel different,” she finally said hesitantly. “I feel like things make more sense now.”

“Have you noticed how much lighter you are yet?” Clarice asked her with a playful smile.

Calypso blinked her swirling orbs, then stood up straight as Aria slowly released her. “Oh my,” she whispered as she walked around them. “I feel so much lighter.”

“If you’re going to eventually get wings, you have to be light enough for them to do you any good,” Clarice told her matter-of-factly.

She stared at Clarice intently, her swirling eyes speeding up. Clarice shifted uncomfortably after a few seconds of silent scrutiny.

“What’s so fascinating about my aura?” Clarice asked suspiciously.

“It changed,” Calypso murmured thoughtfully.

“Really?” Clarice asked in fascination. “How so?”

“It’s stronger,” Calypso replied, turning to study their mother and Devon. “It’s the same with the two of you. It’s emanating further away from your bodies than it used to.”

“What does that mean?” their mother asked with a frown.

“It usually indicates the life force of a person,” Calypso replied, her eyes shifting between them. “People with stronger auras tend to live a lot longer and healthier. It usually reflects strength of character as well, I think.”

“I thought I felt different,” Devon commented in his deep voice. “I thought it was just adrenaline.”

“Do you think that light show will attract any unwanted attention from the bad guys?” Clarice asked him warily.

“I doubt it,” he replied with a shrug. “It probably just registered as a bolide coming through the atmosphere.”

“Are you feeling any other changes?” Aria asked Calypso, her eyes concerned.

The angel closed her eyes, making the light in the dark widows walk dim. “I feel like my abilities have become more intuitive.”

I think she got even prettier, Clarice thought admiringly.

“Really?” Calypso asked her with a slight blush.

“Really what?” Aria asked in confusion, staring between the two of them.

“Did you just read my mind?” Clarice asked in shock.

“Didn’t you just say you thought I had gotten even prettier?” Calypso asked, her blush deepening.

“No, I thought that in my head,” Clarice replied, staring at her in amazement.

“It sounds just like you are saying it out loud,” Calypso told Aria in amazement. “But I didn’t see your lips move.”

“So, you can read minds now,” Clarice confirmed with an evil smile. “Get ready for some seriously embarrassing thoughts from me.”

“Behave,” their mother told her reprovingly.

“Hey, I can’t help what I think about,” Clarice declared innocently. “Not saying it out loud is as much restraint as you are going to get from me.”

“This could be a huge advantage,” Devon said contemplatively. “There will be times we need to know if someone can be trusted. Now we won’t have to guess and hope.”

“That’s true,” their mother agreed with an eager gleam in her eyes. “Our biggest weakness is our ability to remain hidden. If we can add allies with confidence, our chances of remaining safe from people hunting Calypso will increase dramatically.”

“I wonder if there is a distance limitation?” Clarice pondered with a shrewd look at Calypso. “Could you read someone’s mind over a video call?”

“I didn’t even know I was reading your mind at all,” Calypso replied helplessly.

“We’ll have to investigate that possibility tomorrow,” Clarice decided, smiling at Calypso brightly. “Aria has some video calls with former patients in the morning. We could test it out while she is chatting with them.”

“I feel like we should test Calypso’s dexterity now that she is so light,” Aria said, her eyes fascinated. “Maybe we go running up the mountain and do some rock climbing. I want to see how fast she is.”

“Now that would be awesome!” Clarice exclaimed excitedly. “I’ll bet you could jump down a lot further without getting hurt too.”

Calypso smiled indulgently at their enthusiasm. “I’ll confess, I’m curious as well.”

“I think it’s time to call it a night, for those of us who sleep,” their mother said with a yawn. “Let’s pick this conversation up tomorrow morning.”

“I agree,” Devon said with a yawn of his own. “I’m not as young as I was, and I’m still catching up on that all-nighter.”

The two of them went down the ladder, leaving Aria and Clarice with Calypso.

Hey Calypso, do you feel like a little more smooching? Clarice thought, watching Calypso to see if she was always hearing their thoughts.

“What’s smooching?” Calypso inquired curiously.

Aria’s eyes immediately looked over at Clarice suspiciously. She winked at Aria with an alluring smile.

“They call that smooching?” Calypso asked disapprovingly. “That word is not very attractive.”

Clarice chuckled to herself, realizing Aria’s thoughts must have supplied the definition to Calypso. “I agree; it is an awkward word for an intimate act.”

“Kissing is a much more attractive word,” Calypso said critically.

“I’ve always wanted to make a new language where the sound of every word complimented it’s definition,” Aria said reflectively. “To actually have a beautiful language, without all of the synonyms, homonyms, and other silliness that so many languages are plagued by.”

“That’s tickling something in my memory,” Calypso murmured, squinting in thought. “I usually remember everything, but this is just outside of reach.”

“Wait, you remember everything?” Clarice asked, impressed.

“Doesn’t everybody?” Calypso asked in surprise.

“No,” Clarice and Aria said at the same time, then shared a smile.

“Humans forget things all of the time,” Clarice told her ruefully. “Especially names.”

“Do you remember every name of every child you have ever healed?” Aria asked in amazement.

“Yes,” Calypso nodded with a smile. “I can remember you in the hospital like it was only moments ago.”

“Wow, that is an amazing super power,” Clarice breathed enviously.

“It seems odd that this isn’t normal,” Calypso said in a puzzled voice. “How do you manage in life if you have trouble recalling events?”

“That’s why we invented writing,” Clarice said dryly. “We have to write things down, take photos, videos, post them to YouTube, that kind of thing. When we revisit those things, the memories usually return, though they are not fresh in our minds.”

“That reminds me,” Aria peered at her, pursing her lips. “How good is your hearing?”

“That’s a subjective question to ask,” Calypso noted wryly.

“Let’s do a test,” Aria suggested, walking over to the other end of the widows walk. She was about fifteen feet away. The night was filled with the sounds of crickets and frogs.

Clarice saw her lips move in the faint light but heard nothing.

“Loud and clear,” Calypso replied with a nod.

“So did you hear my mother tell me that I should share you with Clarice the other night?” Aria asked curiously.

“Yes,” Calypso confirmed with a gentle smile. “I heard how difficult it was for you to be close to someone. That’s why I came to your room while you slept.”

“Wow,” Aria whispered. “You really are amazing on so many levels.”

Calypso blushed as Aria gazed at her with admiration in her green eyes.

“I want to know how well you can see with those beautiful eyes of yours,” Clarice said playfully. “Can you see color in the night, or is it all just washed out like it is for us?”

“You can’t see colors at night?” Calypso asked in surprise.

“I guess that answers that question,” Clarice said with a laugh. “Can you read the sign on the gate at the end of the driveway?”

Calypso looked out into the night where the mile long driveway ended with a large wooden sign. It would have required binoculars for Clarice to see it.

“The one that says Shaw Ranch?” Calypso asked, her eyes distant.

“That’s the one,” Clarice nodded. “No wonder you love looking at the view from up here. You must be able to see all of the way into town down in the valley.”

“Yes, it is a very picturesque town,” Calypso murmured as she looked toward the town.

“Can you actually see individual objects in the town that far away?” Aria asked in amazement.

“Yes,” Calypso nodded with a faint smile. “There is a van parked on the main street in the center of town with a logo that looks like an S that says Swanson’s Cleaning Service.”

“Wow,” Clarice shared a goggle-eyed look with Aria. “That’s insane.”

“What other super powers have you been hiding?” Aria asked her intently. “Things that you take for granted assuming humans can do.”

Calypso blinked at the question, frowning in thought. “I’m pretty fast,” she admitted. “As a kid I always won any races by a pretty large amount. That could just mean the other people were slow though.”

“Now I’m really curious just how fast,” Aria murmured as she studied Calypso. “Especially now that you weigh practically nothing.”

“What about smell?” Clarice asked with a raised eyebrow. “How keen is your sense of smell compared to humans, I wonder.”

“Are we going to have a sniffing contest?” Calypso asked with an amused smile.

“You know it,” Clarice winked at her. “Compared to other animals, humans have a pretty weak sense of smell. Dogs could smell my hand and tell you what the last thing I ate was. However, since you don’t eat, I wonder if your sense of smell is highly developed at all and if you could even identify the food based on smell.”

Calypso inhaled deeply. “I smell some kind of fruit, I think. And lotion.”

Clarice stared at her in shock. She was still several feet away. She hadn’t even tried to sniff Clarice’s hand and had still identified the smells.

“I think it’s safe to assume you have us beat in the smelling ability too,” Clarice said faintly.

“That’s a safe bet,” Aria agreed with an awed smile. “We have a freaking super hero with us. An honest to god super hero.”

Calypso blushed, looking down at the ground demurely.

“What else is there?” Clarice pondered, tapping her lips thoughtfully. “Oh, I know. How strong are you?”

“I have no idea,” Calypso admitted with a shrug. “I don’t think I ever need to lift anything heavier than a cello.”

“Could you lift me?” Clarice asked with a challenging smile.

Calypso hesitated, looking at Clarice uncertainly.

“Don’t make it weird,” Clarice quipped, walking over to stand in front of her. “I’m a hundred and ten pounds. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Calypso blushed again as she hesitantly put her hands under Clarice’s armpits. She braced herself and then seemed to effortlessly lift Clarice up into the air above her head.

Clarice was laughing as Calypso set her down, her eyes delighted. “So, you’re super strong too.”

“Is a hundred and ten pounds really a lot?” Calypso asked doubtfully.

“Show her, Aria,” Clarice said confidently, turning to face her step sister.

Aria stared at her levelly for a moment. “You’re going to make fun of me when I can’t do it, aren’t you?”

“I would never!” Clarice gasped, her eyes filled with mischief.

Aria rolled her eyes, then braced herself and tried to repeat Calypso’s feat. She pushed up as hard as she could, but Clarice wouldn’t budge. With a growl, she bear hugged her and was finally able to lift her several inches off of the ground.

“See?” Clarice told Calypso with a delighted laugh. “Super strong. Which is crazy, considering how light you are.”

“It really makes the stories of angels wiping out whole civilizations seem plausible, doesn’t it,” Aria said thoughtfully. “If all angels are as powerful, or more powerful than Calypso, they must be able to squish humans like flies.”

“I would never do anything to hurt anyone,” Calypso declared firmly.

“Oh, we know you wouldn’t,” Aria assured her quickly, reaching out a hand to place it reassuringly on Calypso’s forearm. “I’m just referring to the ones from biblical lore.”

Calypso looked troubled, her large, swirling eyes watching them worriedly.

“What’s the matter?” Aria asked her in concern.

“What if I’m not the only one,” she said, concern in her voice. “What if there are other’s here as well, and they aren’t peaceful?”

“I’m pretty sure we would have heard about a rampaging angel in the media,” Aria told her reassuringly. “And you’ve been here for over a hundred years. I seriously doubt there are any others hiding under rocks somewhere.”

Calypso nodded at the reassurance. “I guess you’re right. I suppose we might have a better idea of whether there were any others if we knew how I’d gotten here in the first place.”

“What if you just spontaneously exist?” Clarice suggested thoughtfully. “Like, say there is some energy well for spiritual energy in the world, and when it reaches a certain level it spontaneously spawns an angel.”

“That’s a pretty wild idea,” Aria said doubtfully. “How would it just spawn a complex entity?”

“I don’t know,” Clarice shrugged. “I came up with the theory. It’s your job to figure out the details.”

“That’s not how theories work,” Aria told her levelly.

“Of course it is,” Clarice declared airily. “That’s what happened with Newton. He watched apples fall and had an idea. Then he tried to fill in the details.”

“That’s a hypothesis,” Aria told her critically.

“Oh, please forgive me for getting the terminology wrong!” Clarice cried in feigned remorse. “We’re not all physicists.”

“You’re a physicist?” Calypso asked Aria in surprise. “You know, I’ve never really had a chance to learn about your lives after our first meeting.”

“It’s a lot less fun than I thought it would be,” Aria grimaced. “Everything is funded through grants and donations, so you basically work on whatever some big company or government wants you to work on. Either that, or convince them your own idea is worth investing in. It’s usually not. I had visions of making scientific breakthroughs as a kid. The reality is a lot more bureaucratic and far less interesting than I thought it would be.”

“I guess I never thought about it, but are you missing work to help me?” Calypso asked, her face chagrined.

“I was on a sabbatical,” Aria told her reassuringly. “I’m not due back for another month. I was trying to decide if I wanted to move into another career. I was feeling the waters. That means I was investigating other careers to see what they were like.” Aria remembered at the last minute to include an explanation for her colloquialism.

“You don’t need to explain colloquialisms and slang to me anymore,” Calypso told her with a fleeting smile. “Now that I can hear your thoughts I can understand your meaning.”

“Well, that’s useful,” Aria grinned. “You’ll be a master of pop culture in no time.”

“What about you?” Calypso asked Clarice. “Are you missing work?”

“I’m definitely not missing it,” Clarice declared fervently. “I was working for a soulless corporation. All I did was crunch numbers all day to make their crappy MRP system work. I’ll never be sad for leaving that job behind.”

“Neither of you were happy with your career choices?” Calypso asked, her face filled with compassion.

“You could say that,” Clarice nodded grimly. “Being an adult kind of sucks. I don’t even know what kind of work I would actually enjoy doing. It looked so different from the outside.”

“Yeah,” Aria agreed with a sigh. “I think I could have been happy as a YouTuber, but that’s not a very solid career foundation. It’s too easy to get booted off of the platform or demonetized.”

“I should have been an author,” Clarice said musingly. “I could have just made stuff up all day and gotten paid for it. I could definitely put my life into authoring.”

“I don’t know how much authors make,” Aria said doubtfully. “Unless you are a bestseller or something.”

“Don’t smash my dreams,” Clarice admonished her defensively. “I’ll be an author someday, just you wait and see. I’ll go on adventures and conquer evil wherever I find it.”

“You could certainly write a good book based on our lives for the past couple of days,” Aria said wryly. “It would have to be a work of fiction though, because nobody would believe it.”

Calypso was watching them thoughtfully, her face taking on a pensive cast as she stared at them.

“You’re the best thing that happened to our lives,” Aria told Calypso earnestly, breaking the silence. “Twice. First you saved our lives from a horrible disease, then you saved us from a life of corporate slavery and mediocrity. We have no regrets about where this adventure has led us.”

“None whatsoever,” Clarice agreed fervently. “Life was pretty damn boring until we found you again.”

Calypso’s face relaxed into a smile at their words. “Okay, as long as I haven’t ruined your lives with this debacle.”

Aria impulsively hugged the smiling angel. “Exactly the opposite. I wouldn’t trade anything for what we have now.”

Clarice nodded her agreement, marveling at Aria’s empathetic nature. Sometimes she could be scarily accurate at reading people, just short of mind reading. She had accurately guessed what was bothering Calypso and put her fears to rest.

Aria had clearly decided the embrace wasn’t going to end any time soon, soaking up the warmth and love of Calypso’s presence.

Clarice glanced down at her hand curiously. It had started feeling tingly as they were talking. It was the same hand that Calypso’s tear had fallen on. The tingle slowly spread up her arm and began emanating throughout her body. She gasped as she felt a flash of warmth erupt in her core. It was a pleasant sensation, bathing the rest of her body with some kind of light.

“Clarice, your glowing,” Aria exclaimed as the light caught her eyes.

“I noticed,” Clarice said in bemusement.

“Why are you glowing?” Aria demanded as she stared in shock at Clarice.

“I have absolutely no idea,” Clarice replied with a faint smile. “It feels kind of good though.”

Calypso was staring at Clarice with a puzzled frown. “There is something else on the tip of my memory again. I feel like I should know what is going on.”

“It started with the hand that your tear landed on,” Clarice told them absently. She felt small channels of energy begin to build some kind of geometric grid throughout her body. The energy coursed through the channels, glowing brighter at the nodes where multiple energy lines intersected. After almost a minute, the grid had completed the spread throughout her body. The nodes suddenly snapped into place on the flesh inside of her, binding itself to her body like it was a template. The warmth changed to heat, burning away at her insides. There was no pain, but she could feel organs vanishing in flashes of brilliant energy. She felt her stomach and intestines burn away, followed by her kidneys and liver. The torrent of fire moved upward, searing her insides until all that remained was the grid of energy and her outer human shell of muscle, bone, and skin. Her brain was the last to go, causing her eyes to flare with bright light. The fire finally extinguished itself and she felt a profound sense of happiness fill her entire body. She slowly stopped glowing as the energy diminished. She could still feel it coursing through the matrix of nodes and channels that had replaced most of her insides. She felt like her former body had been a prison as she tentatively took a few steps. Her senses were heightened beyond anything she could have previously imagined. The night was no longer dark to her eyes. She could smell millions of scents, easily cataloged and matched to their source. She could hear Aria’s frantic heart beat and panicked breathing. She could also feel the energy coursing through Calypso’s body, just like it was through hers.

“Oh my god, your eyes,” Aria whispered in stunned disbelief.

“What about my eyes?” Clarice asked, then grinned as she heard the power in her voice.

“They’re violet, like Calypso’s used to be,” Aria said in awe. “Are you…” she licked her lips and started over. “Are you an angel now too?”

Clarice couldn’t stop smiling as she stared at the other two. She felt so alive! Was this how Calypso always felt?

“I think I might be,” Clarice said, her voice throbbing with an authority that demanded attention. She laughed again, joyously this time. “Can you hear my freaking voice? It sounds so freaking cool!”

Aria nodded, wide eyed and awestruck. She stared at her formerly human sister with something close to reverence in her eyes. “I could listen to that voice all day long.”

Clarice laughed again, and it seemed to light up the night with its exuberance.

“I thought you were pretty before, but now…” Aria said, shaking her head slowly. “Wow.”

Clarice waggled her eyebrows with giggle, reveling in the supercharged energy of her new body.

“How can this be?” Calypso whispered in shock. “Was I just a human that turned into an angel?”

“I think that may just be the case,” Clarice nodded, unable to stop smiling. “I can’t believe how much better I feel. It feels like I’ve just recovered from a lifetime of being bedridden.”

“You think Calypso’s tear on your hand is responsible for the change?” Aria asked, her eyes full of wonder.

“That seems to be the best theory available,” Clarice said with a shrug, then grinned mischievously. “And yes, Aria, I still have passionate parts.”

Aria’s cheeks lit up like a sunset, but she laughed through the blush. “You would not believe how hard it was to ask Calypso that question.”

“But one of my tears touched Aria too,” Calypso said slowly. “Shouldn’t she transform as well?”

“That’s true,” Clarice said with a thoughtful look at Aria. “It started while we were talking about careers. Right after I said I wanted to be an author, go on adventures and vanquish evil wherever I found it.”

“You think something may have activated it?” Aria asked in fascination. “Like your intent or something?”

“We’re freaking angels, Aria,” Clarice said wryly. “I said I wanted to vanquish evil; and I meant it. Maybe it has something to do with Angels standing for truth and justice and all that jazz.”

“I want to vanquish evil too,” Aria said dryly. “I don’t think you have to be a-“ she broke off, her eyes widening. She looked down at her hand in shock. “It’s tingling.”

“One more angel, coming up,” Clarice raised her fist in the air and cheered loudly into the night air.

She watched Aria light up like an incandescent bulb, glowing brighter and brighter. She looked at them in open-mouthed wonder. Clarice could sense the same blueprints unfolding throughout Aria’s body as she had felt in her own. The process ended with Aria’s eyes blazing with light. As it dimmed, Aria stood with a wondering smile on her face as she stared at them with violet eyes. Her brilliant red hair seemed to have an inner glow, adding to its luster. Her already beautiful face had become ethereal, something poets would weep to describe.

“Is this how you always feel, Calypso?” Aria asked in amazement. “I can’t believe how good I feel!”

“I have no recollection of being human, so I can’t really compare,” Calypso replied, her eyes drinking in the sight of the changed sisters.

“You know,” Aria said, her voice filled with such heartwarming energy that the area seemed colder without it. “Clarice’s first theory about you was that you were an amnesiac angel. I’m starting to wonder if something traumatic happened to you in the years that you can’t remember. Maybe you were dying, or sick, and you somehow came into contact with an angel tear. Perhaps there wasn’t much left of your mind when the transformation happened.”

Calypso nodded slowly, her expression thoughtful. “Something like that would explain why I can’t remember anything.”

“Can you feel our energy meridians?” Clarice asked Calypso curiously.

“Your what?” Calypso asked blankly.

“I can sense a matrix of channels and nodes with energy flowing through them all throughout your body,” Clarice told her, peering at her closely. “Just like Aria.”

“No, I can’t see anything like that,” Calypso replied with a perplexed frown. “Can you, Aria?”

Aria nodded, studying the two of them. “When I look past your physical shell, I can see a whole lattice of energy lines, billions of them.”

“I wonder if there were complications with your transformation, since you were still a child,” Clarice suggested quizzically. “Maybe this process is only supposed to happen to adults.”

“Maybe that’s what those hints of memories are that you’ve been getting,” Aria suggested hopefully. “Maybe something will eventually trigger a full recall.”

“I don’t think I can hear your thoughts anymore,” Calypso announced with a searching look at the two of them. “Can you think something at me?”

Clarice blinked in surprise, then stared back at Calypso silently.

“Nothing,” Calypso shook her head. “Apparently angels’ thoughts are protected.”

“That’s pretty disappointing,” Clarice lamented with a sigh. “I was going to have a lot of fun sending you all kinds of interesting thoughts.”

“Are you two ever going to go to sleep?” her mother’s voice asked from below the ladder. “What’s with all of the cheering, Clarice?”

Aria shared an impish look with Clarice and they both dissolved into peals of laughter.

“Your voices sound…odd,” their mother said, concern in her voice.

“Hold on mom, we’re coming down,” Aria said, her eyes full of excitement.

“Yeah, that’s not your normal voice Aria,” their mother said warily.

Clarice went over to the ladder, then paused. She looked at Aria and winked, then jumped down to the third floor. She landed lightly in front of her mother, who emitted a startled squawk. She moved out of the way and Aria jumped down as well, landing as gracefully as a cat.

“Instead of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, you can now call us your little angels,” Clarice told their goggle-eyed mother with a jubilant grin.

Calypso followed their lead and jumped down next to them, falling much slower than either of the angels had.

“How?” was all her mother could say, studying them with tears in her eyes.

“We think when one of Calypso’s tears landed on our hand, it created some kind of angel seed,” Clarice told their mother excitedly. “Then when we said we wanted to vanquish evil, the seed went crazy and transformed us. It was so freaking cool! It feels so amazing. Every sense is enhanced so much, and this constant feeling of bliss is intoxicating. It feels like we were living shadow lives before this.”

Their mother seemed captivated by her riveting voice and radiant aura. Clarice pulled her mother into a hug, being careful not to squeeze her too tightly in case she had super strength. “We also discovered that angels are basically super heroes. From our vision, hearing, smell, strength, speed, and dexterity, it’s seriously like having super powers.”

Her mother was silent as she soaked up the powerful aura of love that Clarice exuded. Clarice remembered when she only felt that powerful love when Calypso embraced them. Now it was with her all of the time, filling her with wonder.

“Does Calypso have these abilities too?” her mother asked after Clarice released her a few minutes later.

“She does,” Clarice laughed ruefully. “She didn’t know that she had them though. She has no memory of ever being human, so she didn’t know that she was so much more powerful than everyone else. When we were testing her for super powers before we transformed, we had her lift me up into the air. She did it like I weighed nothing, and was surprised when Aria couldn’t do the same thing.”

“Wow, so we have had a powerhouse with us the entire time and we never knew it,” her mother said with a chuckle. “I get the feeling that she never had any need to use these powers in the life she lived before this. She spent all of her time dedicated to music and healing children.”

“I wonder if we can heal people,” Aria mused, looking at Clarice questioningly.

“I suppose we would have to try making a song to do it, the way Calypso does it,” Clarice said thoughtfully. “Wait a minute. She also sees people’s auras and that’s how she knows they are sick. All I see in my mother are her meridians with energy flowing through them. Calypso can’t see meridians though. Is it possible that her mind has transposed meridian lines into auras?”

Calypso pursed her lips as she considered it. “I’ve seen auras since I was a child. I wonder if it was a matter of learning to see them in a way my young mind could understand, while you see a more complex version of what is happening inside of people’s bodies because your minds were more developed when the transformation happened.”

“That would make a lot of sense,” Clarice nodded, looking closely at her mother’s meridians. The energy was flowing freely, with no snarls or breakpoints. “I think I would need to see other people to know for sure. I think when Calypso strengthened their auras it cleaned their meridians. We would need to see someone who is unwell to know for sure.”

“Do you no longer require sleep either?” their mother asked them curiously.

“I can’t even imagine trying to sleep with the energy coursing through me,” Clarice breathed, her face bordering on euphoric. “If it is always this way, we definitely won’t need sleep.”

“I’m not sure how I feel about that,” Aria sighed with a troubled frown. “I kind of like sleeping sometimes.”

“Normal people need to sleep to break up the stress between days and catalog memories,” Clarice told her gently. “We have perfect recall now, and with this glowing love constantly suffusing our bodies, we aren’t ever going to get stressed.”

“Or age,” Calypso added with a wry smile. “I really was oblivious, wasn’t I?”

“Yeah,” Aria said fondly. “But that’s what made you so endearing.”

Calypso smiled shyly, looking between the two new angels. “If you two weren’t such good people and gone out of your way to spoil me, this would have never happened. I don’t think angels cry very often.”

“You have a point,” Clarice admitted musingly. “I can’t imagine what it would take to make me cry with all of this positive energy running through my system.”

“So how does this affect our plans going forward?” their mother asked, tilting her head inquisitively. “We were trying to keep one angel safe. Now we have three, and you seem a lot more durable than we had thought initially.”

Clarice shared a look with Aria and Calypso. “I feel like we can still push forward with the same plan. Calypso is the world famous musician that everyone knows. We can still use her connections with former patients to form a support system. We can also follow Uncle Devon’s plan to destroy the nanobots in the shadow government contractors and attempt to break their power hold on society. I’m starting to wonder if the rumor of her being an angel might also help our cause. She has a lot of fans, and if they had to march on Washington DC and throw bureaucrats out of their offices, they would do it for her if she asked. Especially if they believe she isn’t just a wonderful human helping people, but an actual angel.”

“So, you don’t want to have her just come out and admit it publicly?” Aria asked, her compassionate voice humming in the air around them like a living manifestation of love.

“No, because then we would have to deal with all of the world religions going nuts,” Clarice pointed out wryly, her lips quirking up on one side. “I think we’ll want to remain in the background as much as possible, working through the network that we create.”

“Speaking of which,” Aria recalled with a sudden frown. “I have a video conference with some former patients later this morning. I think it might make things weird if they see me as I am now. Maybe we should have Calypso be the one to meet them after all. She would even know all of their names by sight.”

“Good idea,” Clarice nodded her approval. She looked at Calypso, her head tilted to the side. “Are you okay with that Calypso?”

“Of course,” Calypso nodded with an eager smile. “I want to see how they are doing anyway. So far, you two are the only former patients that I have met.”

“Okay, I’m going to try and get some sleep with what’s left of the night,” their mother yawned. Her lips curved into a wry smile. “Though I’m not sure I’ll be able to sleep now, knowing my little angels are angels.”

Clarice and Aria burst out laughing, filling the room with warmth. Their mother smiled at them fondly as she felt the waves of positive energy radiate around her. She gave them each a long hug, then went to her room with a look of joy on her face.

Chapter 5

“Okay, the call is live now,” Aria told Calypso, stepping away from the camera. “It’s all you, once they join.”

“I wonder who it will be,” Calypso pondered as she waited. The people who would be joining had listed emails or pseudonyms in place of names.

A moment later, the first person joined. It was a dark haired man who looked to be in his early twenties. When he saw Calypso, his eyes went wide.

“Hello, Jason,” Calypso greeted him with a warm smile. “It’s been nearly thirteen years since I’ve seen you. How are you?”

Jason goggled as he stared at someone he thought he would never see again. He stared in awe as her riveting eyes swirled with violet galaxies.

She waited patiently for him to calm down. He took a deep breath, his eyes still wide in disbelief.

“Calypso!” Jason gasped, eyes wide in amazement. “I had no idea you were the one I was meeting with.”

“My friend, Aria, is the one who set up the calls,” Calypso informed him with another warm smile. “So how are you? What have you done with yourself?”

“I’m good!” he exclaimed with manic enthusiasm, his grin splitting his face. “I’m at MIT studying cyber security. I can’t wait to tell my parents that I actually got to talk to you!”

Calypso laughed indulgently at his enthusiasm. “How are Mark and Lisa? The last time I saw them they were sick with worry.”

Jason laughed nervously. “They are both doing well. We all knew you were NOTESTOREMEMBER, but we kept our mouths shut and didn’t give it away.”

Calypso let out an embarrassed cough, her swirling eyes managing to look sheepish. “Um, I actually didn’t even know my NOTESTOREMEMBER channel was known. I’m kind of oblivious to anything but music, and I used to just upload the things I put together at night to that channel for safe keeping. It wasn’t until Aria and Clarice came back to the hospital to see me a few days ago that I discovered that it was a popular channel.”

“Seriously?” Jason exclaimed, his eyes filled with amusement. “You didn’t even know that you were the most popular musician in the world?”

“I had no idea,” Calypso laughed self-deprecatingly. “Like I said, I’ve kind of been oblivious to anything except my music and the children at the hospitals. Aria and Clarice showed up at my house as soon as the news broke and helped me escape from the media and clandestine agencies.”

“Holy cow, that is wild,” Jason breathed in amazement. “The world owes those two our thanks for keeping you safe then. I saw them in the news when you brought that guy back to life.” He suddenly frowned worriedly, his eyes flickering uneasily. “Are you sure it is safe to be using video chat like this? Those shadow agencies that you mentioned can probably track your location.”

“Aria and Clarice have an uncle who contracted to that agency before, and he knew how to hide me from them,” Calypso explained reassuringly. “He’s using some kind of special technology to keep them from tracking me.”

“What can I do to help?” Jason asked intently, his brown eyes wide and eager. “I owe you my life, and I’ve always wanted to go back and thank you in person. I’m ready and willing to do whatever I can.”

Calypso’s grateful smile probably melted his knees. “Thank you so much, Jason. We are trying to form a network with former patients that can help create diversions and cover for my movements when we leave our hideout. There is a group called the agency that controls most of the clandestine operations in the world. They inject their operatives with nanobots that kill them if they disagree or disclose anything about the agency. There are a lot of contractors and operatives who have become disenfranchised with the agency but can’t do anything without the nanobots killing them. I can cleanse people of the nanobots if I host a live event on my YouTube channel and they watch it. However, we want to ensure that as many people in the agency watch it as possible. We believe the agency can shut down most of the internet if they realize they are threatened. We need people who are experts in the field of cyber security and cyber espionage. Eventually, they’ll figure out where we are, and we will need to have a safe place to move to that is outside of their surveillance network. I do not want to stop helping children who are sick, but I will need to have a way to play live music for them without being traced. However, our first task should really be to cleanse people of the nanobots. We need ideas on how to make as many people tune into the channel as possible that are under the control of these nanobots. We were hoping we could rely on you to help us organize a network to come up with ideas for how to do this.”

Jason leaned back in his chair with his hands behind his head, staring up at the ceiling thoughtfully. After a short time, he leaned forward again. “I can help recruit people, but would it be possible for you to appear in video chat when we need to convince people that we really are working with you, and aren’t just claiming to be?”

“That would not be a problem,” Calypso assured him with a dimpled smile.

“Right off of the top of my head I have a few ideas,” Jason told her intently, rubbing his hands together excitedly. “We could implement a massive hack on digital billboards, screens in places like Central Square, any smart tv connected to the internet, and cellphones. We could have them broadcast your YouTube channel at the time of your live event. I’m sure with a larger group to brainstorm with we can come up with even more ideas.”

“Wonderful,” Calypso smiled encouragingly. “You can contact this profile that Aria made any time you need a video conference. We are available 24/7.”

“Don’t you sleep?” he asked wryly, still grinning manically.

“No, I do not need sleep,” Calypso confirmed with an amused twitch of her lips. “That’s why the NOTESTOREMEMBER channel exists. I spent my nights creating ideas for songs.”

“Jesus, you really don’t sleep?” Jason asked in shock, leaning forward. “Like ever?”

“Ever,” Calypso confirmed again, her swirling violet nebulas making her claim more believable. “I also wish to continue helping children at hospitals. I have learned some new skills and think I may be able to do it through a live video conference. If we could somehow arrange for there to be a screen at as many children’s hospitals as possible I would be able to help a lot more children at once.”

“Seriously?” Jason said, his voice filled with awe. “That would be epic. Probably the most epic thing in history.”

“My main concern is that it gets shut down by the agency during broadcast, so we would want to make sure that it remains completely secret until the event,” Calypso told him gravely. She suddenly smiled, her dimples reappearing as she beamed at him. “I really can’t express my gratitude enough for your help, Jason.”

“I owe you my life, Calypso,” Jason said firmly, his brown eyes sincere. “Anything you need from me, all you have to do is ask.”

Calypso smiled a dazzling smile at him. “Thank you, Jason.”

“I do have one question,” Jason spoke hesitantly, his face a mixture of awe and doubt. “Did you really remember my name from all of those years ago?”

“I remember everyone’s name,” Calypso told him gently, eyeing him fondly. “It’s written on your aura, and I never forget anything.”

“I’ve heard some pretty wild things out there on the web,” Jason admitted slowly, his eyes searching. “Like that you are really an angel. I know it sounds crazy, but I have to ask. Is there any truth to that claim?”

“I am of the angel race,” Calypso confirmed with a nod. “I am not like the angels as they are depicted in the bible though. I want to distance myself from such claims because the repercussions from the world religions would be massive, as you might guess.”

“Wait, what?” Jason leaned forward so quickly that he almost lost his seat. “You really are an angel?”

“Yes,” Calypso said simply.

“Oh man,” Jason stammered, running his hands through his hair nervously. “I’ve tried to live a pretty good life. Any idea if I’ll make it through the pearly gates?”

Calypso blinked, then sighed. “I’m sorry, Jason. I am not an angel in the religious sense. Angels have visited this world before, but religions have tainted the truth of what we are. We do not work for a god in heaven. We are just another species. We have many abilities that would seem wonderous to humans. However, we are not servants of a god. The religions of this world have fabricated most of the information regarding angels. As I had to embarrassingly reassure Aria, we are not genderless. We are just different from humans. I am driven by my desire to help sick children. My music and my children are all that matter to me, personally. It is not in the service of a deity.”

“Oh, thank god,” Jason laughed in relief, slumping back into his chair. “I was terrified that all of that mumbo jumbo in the bible might have been real if angels were real. That’s a huge relief.”

Calypso broke into silver peals of laughter. Jason felt the air around him charge with positivity as her laugh warped the space around him. He suddenly felt happier than he had ever felt as he looked into the mirthful eyes of an angel.

“Do you have any other questions or suggestions?” Calypso asked him affectionately, her lips still twitching with mirth.

“Man, now I’m on the spot and I can’t think of anything,” Jason stressed, running his fingers through his short hair again. “I know I’m going to be kicking myself in an hour for all of the things I should have asked.”

“We will talk again soon,” Calypso assured him with a warm smile.

Jason felt like he had been wrapped in love, just like the time she had embraced him in the hospital so many years ago. “I can’t tell you how much I look forward to it,” Jason grinned widely. “Goodbye for now, Calypso.”

“Goodbye, Jason,” Calypso replied, smiling winsomely before ending the call.

Aria walked up to where Calypso was sitting in front of the computer.

“Well, that went well,” Aria congratulated Calypso, resting her hand affectionately on her shoulder. “He turned out pretty well, didn’t he?”

“Yes, he did,” Calypso agreed fondly, her luminous eyes filled with affection. “He was so scared when I first met him. He was convinced he was going to die. I gave him a hug and promised him that his time of fear and pain was over.”

Aria felt something trickle down her cheek. She reached up and brushed a quicksilver tear away. “Now look what you’ve done,” she scolded Calypso accusingly. “You’ve gone and made me cry.”

Calypso stood up and embraced her tightly. Aria felt the meridians inside her body begin exchanging energy with the meridians in Calypso as they held each other. The exchange felt oddly intimate as she felt Calypso’s unique energy flood her meridians while her energy did the same to Calypso.

“Hugging another angel is almost as intimate as kissing,” Calypso noted with a delighted shiver. “I know I’ve said this before, but I’m so thankful that I met you and Clarice again. I am so glad that you two have become angels as well, and that I’m not alone anymore.”

Aria felt Calypso tremble with the power of her emotions. She brought her hand up Calypso’s back and began combing her fingers through her long, brilliantly blonde hair. Calypso melted into her as she continued stroking her hair lovingly.

“I’m so glad that we came back to you too,” Aria whispered fervently, her angelic voice caressing Calypso’s soul. “I feel like a piece of my heart that was missing has finally been found.”

Aria lost track of time as she embraced Calypso. Calypso seemed to have no intention of letting go any time soon. With their enhanced bodies, discomfort from standing in one position too long was a thing of the past. The concept of time had been subtly but steadily changing in Aria’s consciousness since the time of her transformation. She no longer needed sleep, opening up another eight hours to her day. She could feel her immortality and knew that she was no longer bound to the treadmill of time. Standing in a loving embrace for an hour seemed like no time at all to her altered perception. She wasn’t sure how long they would have stayed like that if they hadn’t been interrupted.

“Do I need to fetch a prybar?” Clarice asked wryly as she walked into the library. “I think you two may have fused together.”

“We have,” Aria murmured, not releasing Calypso. “But a prybar won’t work.”

“I wonder if we take damage like humans do,” Clarice pondered aloud as she stopped right next to them. “We’ll have to do some tests to see how we react to sharp objects and blunt force trauma.”

“I nominate you to be the one to get run over by the car,” Aria said humorously.

“I was in a car accident once,” Calypso spoke up, her head still resting on Aria’s shoulder. “A semi-truck lost control of his brakes on a steep hill and ran into my car. It went into a canyon next to the road about fifty feet below. My poor car was totaled, along with one of my favorite harps. I was fine though. I didn’t suffer any injuries. I had to push the roof off to get out because the car was squished so tightly. I suppose I should have realized that humans wouldn’t have walked away from something like that, but I just thought I was lucky.”

“I guess that answers that question,” Clarice murmured, resting a hand on Calypso’s shoulder comfortingly. “That must have been terrifying.”

“It was,” Calypso admitted with a small shiver. “I thought I was finished. When the police arrived, they couldn’t figure out how I was uninjured, given the state of the car.”

“There’s another video call in two minutes,” Clarice informed them, her voice growing playful. “Did you want to give them a little cuddle show?”

Aria sighed and finally released Calypso reluctantly. The energy exchange ended as they stepped away from each other.

“I wonder who this will be,” Calypso murmured as she sat down in the chair in front of the computer. “We really lucked out with Jason already being in the cyber security field.”

“Yeah, that was a stroke of luck,” Aria agreed brightly, her glowing red hair enhancing her ethereal beauty. “I’m excited to see what this next one turns out to be.”

Calypso started the call and waited for the other party to join. They didn’t have to wait long. A woman in her forties with a familiar motherly face appeared on the screen, with a few other people in the background.

Julia gaped when she saw Calypso, then her face brightened with a thousand watt smile.

“It’s so good to see you again, Julia,” Calypso said, her voice suddenly catching as she stared at one of the people she had interacted with the most over the past fifteen years. A single quicksilver tear appeared in her eye and ran down her cheek. “I can’t believe it’s you.”

“Calypso!” Julia cried delightedly, her own eyes shining with tears. “I had no idea that you were the one we would be meeting with. It’s so good to see you! Are you safe?”

Calypso laughed joyfully and the people on the screen’s eyes widened as they felt the mood around them brighten considerably as warmth suffused them. “Aria and Clarice had an uncle with a safehouse where we can communicate without fear of discovery. Apparently, there are some shadow organizations that want me dead, so we are playing it safe.”

“I saw Aria and Clarice’s apartment in the news and just knew it wasn’t a gas leak that caused that explosion,” Julia stated vehemently.

“We have a plan to deal with the people who are trying to kill us,” Calypso said confidently. “We were hoping to connect with former patients that I have worked with and form a kind of network. We will need some kind of support structure in order to continue helping sick people without getting caught in the crosshairs of these shadow agencies.”

“Say no more,” Julia smiled widely. “I have all of the records of the former patients for our hospital, and I guarantee that I can get my hands on the other hospitals’ records as well.”

“Julia, you are a lifesaver,” Calypso breathed gratefully. “I’m pretty sure I can heal people over live broadcasts, but we would need people to help coordinate things at the hospitals so that people are watching during the broadcast. We want to do it with as many places as possible the first time since it won’t go unnoticed. The shadow agency will probably try to interfere in future attempts. We’ve spoken with one former patient already who is at MIT and specializes in cyber security. He is also going to be working on network building so we’ll put you in contact with each other.”

“You could really heal them over a live broadcast?” Julia asked in awe. “That would be amazing. You know, I had suspected you were the reason so many children were suddenly recovering for a few years now. You really are an angel, Calypso.”

“Um, about that,” Calypso began hesitantly, her eyes suddenly growing more intense. “I don’t want to officially announce it to the world due to the problems it would cause with religions, but I actually am an angel.”

Julia stared into her swirling orbs in silence for several seconds as the people behind her stared on in disbelief or amazement.

“The stories about us from religious texts are highly inaccurate,” Calypso said quickly into the shocked silence. “We don’t serve a deity. We are just a different race than humans. We have some abilities and physiological differences that set us apart, but we are not divine messengers.”

“What kind of abilities,” a middle-aged man in the background asked curiously.

“Well, we are more durable for one,” Calypso answered, pursing her lips as she thought. “We don’t sleep or eat. Our senses are more enhanced and we don’t age. And no, we are not genderless.”

Julia laughed as Calypso finished. “I have a feeling that will be one of the first questions people ask when they find out.”

“We are okay with people finding out,” Calypso went on, her lips turning up slightly at Julia’s mirth. “We just don’t want to officially admit it. Clarice thinks it would cause a lot of trouble with the world religions if we confirmed it.”

“I agree with that assessment,” Julia nodded, her eyes clouded. “The major religions will probably not get involved if it is just hearsay, but if it is openly admitted then they would either have to declare support or claim you are demons in disguise; especially after revealing you don’t serve a deity.”

“They would probably claim you belong to the third of the hosts of heaven that were cast out, and that you are fallen angels,” the middle-aged man commented, shaking his head.

“You said we,” an older woman with long grey hair noted with a raised eyebrow. “Does that mean there are other angels around?”

Calypso hesitated, glancing over at Aria and Clarice with questioning eyes.

“Just two, that you know of,” Clarice whispered quietly.

“I only know of two others,” Calypso answered, her eyes flickering back to the screen. “I don’t know if there are more out there. It would be nice to know for sure though.”

“How are Clarice and Aria doing, anyway?” Julia asked, her motherly face full of kind concern.

“They are my angels,” Calypso smiled affectionately, causing the ambient levels of positivity to rise by several units. “They really saved me from a lot of trouble. I’m eternally grateful to have met them. I’ve spent my entire life dedicated to music and healing. I’m very ignorant about so much about this world that I would probably be in a lab getting dissected right now without them.”

Julia’s face paled at Calypso’s words. “I feel sick even thinking of such an evil act,” Julia declared fiercely, her motherly features stern. “Those two have my gratitude as well. I’m sure that sentiment is practically universal at this point.”

Calypso smiled up at Aria and Clarice, her swirling eyes full of love. Julia and her companions blinked as they suddenly felt waves of overwhelming love saturate the area around them.

“Wow, you really can effect things over video calls,” Julia breathed in wonder. “I thought there would be distance limitations or something.”

“I’m counting on that to be the case when I do the live broadcast for the children,” Calypso confessed hopefully. “I would love to have a trial run if there are any new children with you, or at one of the nearby hospitals.”

“You fixed all of ours a few days ago,” Julia beamed at her. “Laticia here is a nurse at New Hope hospital though, and I’ll bet she can help arrange something.”

“Absolutely,” the older woman confirmed with a confident nod. “I will get something set up and let you know what time we can do it. Can we reach you at the same email you used for this video chat?”

“Yes, this email is just fine,” Calypso confirmed with a grateful smile. “So, what do James and Malek do?”

The two men behind Julia blinked, looking nonplussed at her knowledge of their names.

“You know James and Malek?” Julia asked in surprise.

“It’s written on their auras,” Calypso explained, her eyes staring intently at the screen. “Oh yeah, angels don’t forget anything either. I didn’t realize that everyone didn’t have perfect recall until Aria and Clarice told me it wasn’t normal to remember everything.”

“I guess that makes introductions unnecessary,” Julia commented wryly, her hazel eyes a mix of awe and amusement. “James is in charge of hospital security and Malek is a retired doctor. James also discovered that you were healing the children a few years ago when he had to review the security footage for an incident in the conference hall.”

“I guess I wasn’t as subtle as I thought,” Calypso sighed with a rueful shake of her head. “Thank you, James, for not revealing my secrets.”

“I was pretty sure the healings would end if news that someone was performing miracles at our hospital became public knowledge,” James replied, scowling as he continued. “As the moron that blew your cover has proven.”

“When would you like to meet up again?” Julia inquired eagerly, her eyes alight with purpose.

“I can meet any time you need to talk with me,” Calypso answered, smiling slightly. “I don’t sleep, so night or day is fine. Maybe we could have a weekly call to keep each other updated on progress?”

“That sounds perfect,” Julia approved, her face breaking into a wide smile. “It’s wonderful to see you safe and well, Calypso. Just reach out to me if there is anything else we can do for you.”

“Thank you,” Calypso replied, her face filled with gratitude. “You are such wonderful people. I’ll talk to you soon.”

Julia and her companions gasped as the weight of Calypso’s gratitude flooded their systems with emotion before the call ended.

“Well, that was unexpected,” Aria declared brightly, her violet eyes twinkling. “Of all of the people we could have ended up meeting, it turned out to be one of the few people that you knew, Calypso.”

“That was pretty bizarre,” Clarice agreed, looking upwards suspiciously. “I wonder if there is some divine intervention going on here after all.”

“Maybe monkey’s will fly out of my butt too,” Aria retorted sarcastically.

“You don’t have a butt anymore, silly,” Clarice reminded her with a snort of laughter. “Maybe that’s why they thought angels were genderless.”

“Thanks for taking the conversation to a weird place, Clarice,” Aria groaned, facepalming.

“Making conversations awkward is a public service I’m always willing to perform,” Clarice declared magnanimously. “We should go see if Uncle Devon has recovered from shock yet. He was pretty wild eyed when we ambushed him with our new look this morning.”

Aria giggled at the memory. Their uncle had come out onto the veranda earlier that morning for some breakfast. He had found the three angels setting out the breakfast spread. Aria had offered him a coffee with a bright smile, her violet eyes vivid with her lustrous red hair. He had nearly dropped the coffee when his mind had finally registered what his eyes were seeing. Then Clarice had joined her and asked if he wanted eggs in a basket and he did drop his coffee. He had been staring at them almost constantly in awe until they left for the video call.

“We probably should have let mom warn him first,” Aria murmured sympathetically.

“Screw that,” Clarice sniggered with a wicked smile. “This way was a lot more fun.”

“You are so bad,” Aria declared, shaking her head.

“I’m an angel,” Clarice objected playfully. “Angels can’t be bad, or they wouldn’t be angels.”

“So, anything you do is good, no matter how bad because you’re an angel?” Aria observed doubtfully.

“Hey, you get it,” Clarice beamed approvingly, her violet eyes filled with sincerity. “We can do no evil, say no evil, and hear no evil.”

Aria facepalmed and turned away. “Your too much, do you know that?”

“Too much goodness,” Clarice corrected with an impish grin. “Come on, let’s go talk to uncle. I want to see if we can make a trip to town today and get some additional musical instruments. We are severely lacking right now.”

“I guess with no need for sleep we will have a lot more time for composing,” Aria noted thoughtfully. “Okay, let’s go convince him to sneak us into a music shop. I’m going to max out my credit card.”

“You can’t use your credit card, dummy,” Clarice rebuked her sternly. “They can track any purchases we make with our credit cards.”

“Oh yeah,” Aria’s face fell. “How are we going to pay for more instruments then?”

“We are going to practice wheedling,” Clarice answered with a sly wink. “Did you forget that Uncle Devon is filthy stinking rich?”

“You are a bad angel,” Aria laughed helplessly. “I don’t care how much you try to pretzel the definitions of comparative morality. You are a bad angel.”

“I can live with that,” Clarice accepted with an impish grin. Her eyes grew challenging. “Race you to the veranda.”

Aria broke into a run instead of answering.

“Cheater!” Clarice yelled as she bolted after her.

Aria grinned as she flew down the hallway at impossible speeds. She rounded the corner and ran up the stairs and into the Veranda in under three seconds. Clarice was only a split second behind her.

Their uncle and mother blinked at the sudden influx of wind and the appearance of the two angels.

“I didn’t say go, you cheater,” Clarice chided her with a disapproving glare. “Who’s the bad angel now?”

“You’re just a sore loser,” Aria quipped back, grinning in triumph. “Nobody likes a sore loser.”

“Thems is fighten words, missy!” Clarice declared ominously, advancing on her threateningly.

“Not in the house!” Aria exclaimed quickly. “We’ll break too much stuff.”

“Then you’re coming with me to the great outdoors,” Clarice declared, chin in the air. She walked over to the edge of the veranda and jumped down the twenty foot drop.

Aria rolled her eyes but couldn’t stop a grin as she followed. Being able to jump ridiculous distances and run at super speeds was exhilarating on a whole other level.

As soon as she landed in the lawn below, Clarice grabbed her by the arm and pulled hard. Aria was expecting to get pulled off of her feet. She was not expecting to get thrown fifty feet through the air and crash into an elm tree. She stood up and tried to feel the back of her shirt, where most of the impact had occurred. There was a large rip.

“You are so dead,” Aria shouted grimly, her face thunderous . “This was one of my favorite shirts.”

“It’s going to be even more stylish when I’m finished with you,” Clarice smirked as she darted across the fifty feet in a flash.

Aria wished she would have taken her martial arts classes more seriously, like Clarice had. When they had started college their mother had convinced them to take some self-defense courses because, as she put it, “they were too damn pretty”. Clarice had found a Ju-jitsu instructor during her first semester that had taught them for the remainder of their college years. Clarice had been a natural fighter and climbed the ranks quickly. Aria had been mediocre at best.

Aria dropped into a low crouch as she tried to keep her eyes on Clarice’s ridiculously fast form. Clarice used her momentum to skid down under Aria’s waiting arms, grabbing one of her ankles as she slid past. Aria let out a yelp as she was suddenly airborne again. She tried to right herself in the air, but apparently gravity didn’t work like that. She crashed into the thick branches of another tree, breaking through them with deafening cracking sounds before slamming into the ground with a thud. Her shirt had been shredded by the branches. It hung off of her in tatters, with all of the goods hanging out. Her pants weren’t in much better shape.

“Not a bad look for you,” Clarice sniggered as she zipped toward her at high speed.

“Seriously, Clarice?” Aria growled, snatching one of the branches that she had broken off in her flight. “Are you trying to completely undress me?”

“Maybe,” Clarice grinned wickedly as she appeared in front of Aria. She reached for Aria’s arm again but had to jump back when Aria swung the branch at her. It made a shrill whistling sound as it swung through the air at supersonic speeds. By the time it reached Clarice there was nothing but kindling left. She laughed and grabbed Aria’s arm before she could pull it back. Aria managed to grab Clarice’s arm as she was flying over her head. Instead of shooting off into the distance again, she pinwheeled around Clarice. She tucked both of her knees in front of her before making impact with Clarice’s hips. They both crashed into the ground with a loud thud. Aria knew she had milliseconds to take advantage of her superior position. She grabbed Clarice by the shoulder and flipped her around so that she was face down in the dirt and put her knee in the middle of her back while holding both of her arms bent behind her back.

“You know what’s funny?” Clarice said conversationally, the side of her face mashed into the dirt.

“Your face right now,” Aria suggested with an insolent grin.

“This would have worked, if we were still human,” Clarice said, an evil smile in her voice.

Aria frowned but wasn’t quick enough. Clarice’s legs whipped back further than they should have been able to go and hit her in the middle of the back. She flew forward headfirst into a tree a dozen feet away and fell unceremoniously to the ground.

Clarice was on her feet, grinning at her wolfishly. Her angelic beauty was marred slightly by the sheer amount of dirt stuck to her face and hair. “That was pretty good. You just have to remember the rules have changed now that we aren’t human anymore. The same rules don’t apply.”

Aria let out a rueful laugh as she looked down at herself and back at Clarice. Her sister’s clothes were still intact, but only barely. “Can you believe how insanely OP we are? I mean, when Calypso lifted you up easily I knew she was strong, but this is on a whole new level.”

“I’m literally giggling myself silly inside at how cool this is,” Clarice declared with an exuberant smile. Her eyes were filled with wonder and excitement. “The speed alone is nuts. I was trying to push myself a little, but I was definitely not going all out. If this is how powerful angels are, it’s no wonder humans thought they were a step beneath gods.”

“Maybe that’s what the Greek gods of mythology really were,” Aria suggested musingly. “To humans, we would appear to be like gods.”

“That reminds me,” Clarice frowned, her face becoming serious. “We know how to make new angels. That’s a pretty big deal. Where would it end if we started transforming humans into angels? Think of a world with billions of angels running around, invincible for all practical purposes, and no longer beholden to food or sleep. I’m wondering if we should keep the fact that humans can become angels secret and not change anyone else. As soon as we change someone else, the choice to not make more will be out of our hands.”

“What about mom and dad?” Aria asked pleadingly, her eyes wide and entreating. “If we changed them, they would be with us forever.”

“Of course we would change them,” Clarice replied reassuringly. “I just mean non-family. Even if we only change family, there are people they will probably want to change. I can just see it getting out of control quickly.”

“Yeah,” Aria agreed in a more subdued tone. “Of course, we don’t even know if the same thing works with our tears. Calypso is more evolved than we are, so it might not even work for us. Hell, it might not ever work for us. Maybe Calypso is the only one that will ever be able to do it. She is definitely a little different than us.”

“We can find out with mom,” Clarice suggested firmly. “Of course, she’ll have to agree to it in the first place. I can’t imagine that she would say no though.”

“We should ask Calypso too,” Aria advised, a contemplative look in her eyes. “There are three of us right now. I think we should all be in agreement on something of this magnitude.”

“I think we should get Mom’s opinion on living forever without asking her outright if she wants to be an angel, then see if we can find a way to get a tear onto her without telling her,” Clarice proposed, her violet eyes concerned. “Then guide her into a conversation where she declares a desire to vanquish evil. That way, if it doesn’t work she won’t have gotten her hopes up. I would hate to put that hope in her head just to have it fail.”

“That’s a great idea,” Aria agreed, her expression serious. “That would be a pretty big rug pull if it failed.”

Clarice suddenly laughed as a thought occurred to her.

“What?” Aria prompted curiously, her lips curving slightly.

“If we changed Uncle Devon, we could just cut him loose to take care of the bad guys all by himself,” Clarice laughed mischievously.

Aria smiled at the thought. “Yeah, he would be a like a juggernaut if he had the same power we do.”

“I wonder what our limits are,” Aria mused with a speculative look at Clarice. “What would it truly take to kill us? How indestructible are we?”

“That presents us with another problem when it comes to changing people,” Clarice pointed out pensively. “What if we are truly immortal and can’t ever die, even if we want to? Some people might find that frightening.”

“Wow, that is kind of scary to think about,” Aria agreed, her eyes distant. “What happens when the sun dies, or the planet blows up? Would we just be drifting around in space forever?”

Clarice tilted her head, a small smile appearing on her lips.

“What?” Aria asked warily.

“Do we need oxygen?” she asked reflectively. She stared at Aria, her body becoming still. Aria realized she could no longer here her sister breathing and her chest was no longer rising and falling.

Aria curiously made herself stop breathing as well, waiting for the burning sensation that signaled the last of her oxygen had been used up. It never came. She stared at Clarice wide eyed as they both continued to stand, unbreathing. After a few minutes, Clarice spoke.

“I guess we only need oxygen to vocalize,” she breathed, here eyes still wide with incredulity.

“Do we though?” Aria creased her brows as she thought. “Calypso sings in harmony with herself. She’s generating sound waves with something besides her vocal cords.”

“Good point,” Clarice nodded, her violet eyes deep in thought. “This energy matrix that replaced our insides must be capable of doing more than we understand yet. Calypso must have found a way to use that power with her music. I think we need to watch her heal someone, to see the actual energy at work.”

“Interesting thought,” Aria murmured, recalling the way Calypso used music to guide her healing magic. “She’s using music to help her heal people. What if the music is just some kind of energy template? Like she’s using it to pull the energy out of herself to use for healing, similar to guided meditation or something.”

“What did she do to bring that guy back from the dead?” Clarice inquired, her eyes curious. “Did she just sing a song?”

“No, it was way different than what she did at the hospital,” Aria replied intently, her now perfect memory making the event as clear as the moment it happened. “She was singing to herself, but there were words of power she was using as well. I don’t know how else to describe it. The words themselves evoked a sense of power. It was actually kind of scary.”

“So that begs the question of whether those words had power due to something she charged them with from her energy matrix, or if there are actually words in some divine language that have innate power,” Clarice observed, her eyes filled with excitement. “We really do have a lot to discover about all of this angel stuff. Calypso has been on the cusp of understanding something lately. When I started my transformation, she said she felt like she almost knew what was going on. I’m starting to wonder if we are connected to some kind of racial network information layer as we evolve that allows us to gain knowledge directly from an ultimate source or something wild, like the Akashic Records.”

Aria couldn’t stop herself from laughing at Clarice’s words. At her sister’s questioning look, she reigned in her mirth. “I’m sorry, it’s just so funny that we are talking about stuff like the Akashic Records seriously. Can you imagine if our past selves from a week ago heard us talking about energy matrices and meridians? It’s still just blowing my mind how much our world view has changed in such a short time. I totally agree though; the Akashic Records seem like a much more plausible concept now that I can feel this unbelievable light suffusing my being.”

Clarice smiled ironically and nodded. “Yeah, I’m getting whiplash from how fast my opinions on what’s possible are changing. I feel like I have to revisit all of the nonsense I blew off as brainsick fantasies and give them another chance from this new perspective.”

They both froze as their sensitive hearing detected the sound of a vehicle in the distance.

“Maybe it’s just someone driving through the mountains,” Aria commented as they looked down the road. Aria marveled again at the power of her vision. She could clearly see well past the driveway and down the road that led to their residence for miles. After a few more minutes a pickup truck came around a bend and into their view, still several miles away. Aria studied the driver as he slowly drew closer. His face was almost completely covered by a wild looking beard and bushy eyebrows. He was a portly man, with large jowls and little to no neck. He wore dark sunglasses and had a large cowboy hat on his dash. There were no other occupants in the cab of the truck.

“I’m guessing it’s just someone going fishing or camping,” Aria said, looking back at her sister with a raised eyebrow. “Maybe we should go find some new clothes before we run into a stranger and get mistaken for wild women.”

Clarice snorted a short laugh as she observed Aria’s almost completely naked form. The collar of her shirt had survived, and a few tatters still clung to it. Her pants had been completely torn off after her destructive flight through the branches of a tree. Her long red hair offered a small amount of concealment for her torso, but the rest of her was as bare as the day she was born. Clarice still had her clothes on, but they were torn and stained so badly that she looked like she had been put through the gears of a chocolate factory.

“Race you back,” Clarice grinned, bolting before she finished the sentence. Aria rolled her eyes and took off after her. She clearly didn’t want Aria getting the jump on her again.

It only took them a few seconds to get back to the large cabin. She could see her uncle on the veranda and made a detour around the cabin. She launched herself in the air outside of her bedroom and landed lightly on the three story deck outside of her room.

“I won,” Clarice grinned smugly from where she stood in the doorway to her room next-door.

“I had to take a detour to avoid Uncle Devon,” Aria retorted defensively.

“No, you didn’t,” Clarice disagreed with a smirk. “You just chose to take a detour. It’s not like he would have seen you clearly at the speeds we were going.”

“Quiet, you,” Aria commanded imperiously. “I’m going to take a shower.”

“Me too,” Clarice grinned wryly. “Who would have thought angels could get so dirty.”

“Fallen angels,” Aria replied sardonically as she went through her bedroom door.

“You definitely fell,” Clarice noted pointedly from the next room over, knowing Aria could still hear her clearly. “You fell a lot.”

“I’m just going to pretend that walls still stop sound,” Aria grumbled with a shake of her head.

XXXXX

After showering and getting fresh clothes, Aria went down to the veranda and joined her mother and uncle as they ate some lunch. Clarice was already there, deep in discussion with their Uncle Devon and mother.

“I don’t think Calypso should go, however,” Devon was saying, his face serious. “Her presence is a little too difficult to conceal. If something does happen, I don’t think she would fight like I know you two would. She’s a gentle soul and not cut out for a conflict if trouble finds us.”

“I agree,” Clarice responded firmly. “I never want to risk her being discovered.”

“Do you really think you are bullet proof?” their mother asked dubiously. “That’s not something we can really test.”

“I threw Aria through an elm tree that tore half of the thick upper limbs off of it and she didn’t have a scratch,” Clarice assured her with a confident nod. “She swung a stick at me so hard that it literally dissolved into woodchips. We are essentially indestructible.”

“As long as you wear the sunglasses and have Aria wear a hat to hide her hair, I don’t think this should be a problem,” Devon reasoned tentatively. He paused before looking at them pointedly. “And don’t give anybody hugs. You don’t seem to be able to stop the emotional effect that your hugs cause, and it would definitely leave an impression that could leave a trail back to you.”

“It’s just Clarice and me going then?” Aria inquired, glancing at her mom. For the first time in her life Aria realized her mother was getting older. She was fit and healthy for someone in her fifties, but Aria noticed the age spots, grey hairs, and careworn skin of a person well past the prime of her life. She felt a sudden urgency to try the angel tears on her mother.

“Yeah,” their mother nodded with a faint smile. “I’m totally content to just relax and enjoy this beautiful cabin. I’ll leave the hours of travel to the younger crowd.”

Aria shared a look with Clarice, the same concern for their mother’s age mirrored in her sister’s eyes. They needed to speak with Calypso when they returned and see if she was okay with adding another angel or two to the group.

“Try to go the speed limit and don’t attract attention with flamboyant behavior,” their Uncle Devon instructed them as he pulled some keys from his pocket, followed by a large wad of cash.

“We’ll be good,” Aria assured him with a cheery smile.

“Cause we’re angels,” Clarice added with an impish grin.

Devon and their mother shared a worried look as the two angels stood up and left.

XXXXX

“Well, I guess there’s nothing to do but wait and hope for the best,” Emily sighed nervously. “I really hope they are indestructible. Maybe I should have tried talking them into staying for another week or two before leaving our sanctuary.”

“At the speeds they can run, I don’t think they’ll have a lot to worry about,” Devon noted reassuringly. “If they get into trouble that they don’t think they can handle, they can just run away. If it wasn’t so attention-grabbing, they could have just run into town instead of driving; it would have been significantly faster. I’m still having trouble believing how fast they are.”

“It really makes you think about those biblical stories in a new light, knowing what we know now,” Emily remarked contemplatively, absently rubbing an earlobe. “Can you imagine this kind of power in the wrong hands?”

“I can imagine it,” Devon shivered, his brown eyes haunted as he frowned. “And it scares the willies out of me.”

“I’ve seen the two of them looking at me speculatively whenever my age comes up,” Emily stated wearily with a shake of her head. “I know they are thinking about trying to transform me to an angel. Probably you too. I think they have worked out what a can of worms it could open up, though. To be honest, immortality has always scared me. The idea of not having an end in sight triggers a sense of claustrophilia.”

Devon nodded empathetically, rubbing his chin pensively. “I never did have a chance to have any kids,” he said with a wistful smile. “Once I got wrapped up in contractor work that option went out the window. I’m pretty sure that angels don’t have babies, even if they do have the equipment. Now that Calypso cleared my system of nanobots, I have the chance to have a family of my own. I don’t think I want to trade that opportunity for immortality. At least, not until I’ve experienced being a father. Who knows? Maybe I’ll change my mind down the road somewhere, but for now, I would rather not make the transformation.”

“What do you think about it, Calypso?” Emily asked curiously, knowing the eldest of the angels could hear her, wherever she was in the house.

Devon looked around in surprise when he heard Emily address the angel but saw nothing. Emily tapped her ear meaningfully and he nodded his understanding. A few minutes later, Calypso entered the veranda. She was dressed in a slim skirt with emblazoned white dragons on a cream background. A sleeveless white button-up blouse with a high neck accentuated her hourglass figure. Her long bangs were pulled back over her head, leaving the rest of her brilliant blonde hair to flow down her back and shoulders. Large innocent eyes with swirling violet vortexes watched them curiously as Calypso walked toward them, an inquisitive smile on her lips. Emily had to continually remind herself that the beautiful woman was twice her own age. Her ignorance of so much about the world added to the youthful persona. While Clarice and Aria might look like angels, Calypso had the innocence of a true angel.

“Hello, Emily and Devon,” Calypso greeted them warmly, filling the veranda with her loving presence. “What would happen if everyone in the world was transformed into an angel?”

Devon shared a troubled look with Emily at the odd question.

“I suppose everyone would become immortal, invincible, and resources would no longer be necessary since angels don’t require sustenance,” Emily answered speculatively. “But can angels have children? Would the population remain fixed at seven billion people for the remainder of time on earth?”

“You have to wonder what would happen with wars and conflict if nobody could be injured,” Devon commented musingly, rubbing his chin as his eyes grew distant. “Can angels survive in space? If so, would we start colonizing other worlds?”

“Think about the economic impact of a workforce that just decided to quit work because they didn’t need food, shelter, sleep, or vehicles anymore,” Emily continued the thought experiment, feeling her wonder grow as they imagined the possibilities. “Manufacturing would come to a grinding halt. All of the pollution produced every day would vanish almost overnight. Technology would probably take a huge hit, without a willing workforce of grunts to do the menial work. Civilization would become far more primitive unless there was a way to motivate people to continue working.”

“I guess it depends on whether angels truly are invulnerable,” Devon noted with an inquisitive look at Calypso. “If there really is no way to hurt an angel, a lot of the morals people have developed would disappear in a large group of the population. People obey the law because of the consequences of breaking the law. If angels can’t feel pain and have overwhelming strength, how would laws be enforced? What would happen when a sadistic sociopath decided to go on a killing spree with the animals that are mortal still, or just decided to start destroying whatever they wanted because they could? How would we stop them? I imagine rape would still be a thing, so there would have to be some way to enforce laws for immortals.”

“The only real way to stop someone would be for other angels to constantly restrain them,” Emily concluded with a disgruntled frown. “There would have to be angel enforcers who were willing to dedicate their time to handling the malcontents, and there would have to be enough of them to significantly outnumber the bad ones.”

“It makes you wonder if that is what the war in heaven was all about,” Devon speculated with a shrewd look. “Maybe this war in heaven was about a race of angels finding a way to deal with “fallen” angels. They cast them down to earth.”

“Wait a minute,” Emily gasped in sudden understanding. “Humans were the fallen angels! They found a way to make angels mortal and dumped them on earth.”

Devon whistled as he eyed her excitedly. “Now that would be an interesting explanation for our religious history. The reason we are fixated on heaven, morality, sin, and hell. What if the angels who were cast down to earth as humans were visited by the other angels and given guidelines for a path back to becoming transcendent beings again? It’s taken thousands of years for humans to develop a society of justice and ethics evolved enough that most people can live normal lives; in some parts of the world, anyway.”

“That begs the question,” Emily stared at Calypso, her eyes intrigued. “How did Calypso become an angel? Did one of the ascendent angels decide to see if humans had finally become civilized enough to have a chance at salvation?”

“Maybe I’m not the first angel to appear,” Calypso said thoughtfully. “What if it happens every few thousand years to see if people are ready.”

Emily exchanged a meaningful look with Devon. “You mean like the story of Jesus?”

Calypso shrugged, her large eyes uncertain. “He did heal a lot of people and perform miracles, like bringing people back from the dead.”

“That’s an interesting idea,” Devon stared at Calypso intently. “He was killed though. You are pretty much invulnerable. I wonder if there is missing information about the story.”

“If he really was an angel, or part angel,” Emily mused quietly. “I wonder if his disciples were transformed the way Aria and Clarice were.”

“There’s a pretty big difference in how his apostles joined him and how your daughters joined Calypso,” Devon pointed out. “Aria and Clarice were solely interested in Calypso’s wellbeing and happiness. The apostles were fascinated with his abilities. They struggled to understand his philosophies for a long time. The Beatitudes were completely incomprehensible to them initially. I have a feeling that compassion wasn’t very popular in that time.”

“Don’t let my daughters hear you refer to them as apostles,” Emily laughed, her dark eyes full of mirth. “They have pretty strong opinions about religion.”

“As I recall, so did Jesus,” Devon noted with a smile.

“Good point,” Emily nodded, her smile fading. “I would imagine that if he appeared to people today the way he appeared back then, most religions would shun him.”

“Without a doubt,” Devon agreed sagely. “He would be considered a bleeding hearted liberal hippy.”

Calypso laughed delightedly at Devon’s assessment, raising the positivity around them by an order of magnitude.

“I wonder if he was a hybrid angel of some kind,” Calypso suggested after her laughter ended. “Maybe that’s why he was able to be killed.”

“Well, whatever he was, he certainly shared a lot of similarities with you, Calypso,” Emily told the beautiful angel fondly. “The way you have dedicated your life to healing sick children is indescribably amazing. The number of parent’s who still have their beautiful children because of you must number in the tens of thousands.”

Calypso blushed profusely under the sincere praise, looking down at the ground demurely. “Thank you, Emily.”

“Thank you, Calypso,” Emily replied sincerely. “Words could never describe how thankful I am to you for saving my little girls’ lives.”

“You are so welcome, Emily,” Calypso told her warmly, saturating the area with her affection. “I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to finally see some of my little ones all grown up and happy.”

Chapter 6

“Do you ever wonder why they put 55mph signs a few hundred feet in front of 45mph signs?” Clarice quipped ironically. “Then put a 35mph a few hundred feet further. Seems like a total waste of tax money to build all of those redundant signs.”

“If you want to go on a crusade for wasted tax dollars, there are a lot more juicy places to go than the department of transportation,” Aria informed her dryly.

“Yeah, but these are the ones I see all of the time,” Clarice argued, her eyes full of righteous outrage. “There’s even a police car just waiting to pounce when someone waits until the 35mph sign to slowdown. That’s total crap. Why don’t they put the money into deer fences or something useful?”

Aria couldn’t stop herself from giggling at Clarice’s antics. She always had something to criticize about the infrastructure when they were driving.

“What about those powerlines?” Aria pointed at the lines parallel to the road. “I thought you were on a crusade to get those buried?”

“Well, why can’t they bury them?” she demanded with a scornful glare at the offensive power poles. “They bury the phone, gas, and water lines. Do you know how much money they must spend on tree trimming every year to keep the damn tree branches out of the power lines? And they still lose power every time the wind kicks up.”

“Maybe high voltage is dangerous to put underground,” Aria suggested archly. “What happens when it floods?”

“Nonsense,” Clarice flapped her argument away with her hand. “They could just put them in concrete tunnels with proper drainage.”

“I’m pretty sure that would get cost prohibitive fast,” Aria pointed out, watching her sister with amusement.

“More prohibitive than constant tree maintenance and lawsuits from wildfire victims?” Clarice retorted, narrowing her eyes when she saw Aria grinning at her. “Besides, think of all of the trees that would still be alive if they weren’t replacing power poles constantly.”

“That cop is following us,” Aria informed her when she finished her tirade. “You weren’t speeding, so what’s his deal?”

Devon had supplied them with his black suburban. It had tinted windows that he had assured them was below the legal limit. They had all of the seats down to make room for instruments.

“Just pull into a store or something to get him off of our tail,” Aria instructed her warily.

“Do you know how much tax payer money it costs to fully outfit a police car?” Clarice asked critically, her twinkling eyes at odds with her tone.

“Seriously?” Aria complained with an exasperated sigh. “Just pull in somewhere already and give those two someone else to go bug.”

“The dude driving looks like he passed the physical,” Clarice remarked as she studied the police officers through her rearview mirror. “His partner looks like he’s been hitting the donut shop a little too frequently though.”

“Pull over already,” Aria begged, her eyes pleading. “They’re going to pull us over for some BS probable cause and then we’ll have to show them your ID. I’m pretty sure they’re going to recognize us, and even if they don’t our names will probably get run through their computer system and get us flagged by the agency.”

“Fine,” Clarice sighed theatrically, rolling her eyes exaggeratedly at Aria. “I’m pulling over. Happy?”

They pulled into a Subway sandwich shop. Aria groaned as the police car’s blinker turned on, following them into the shop.

“Yeah, pulling over didn’t help much,” Clarice informed Aria dryly.

They parked their car in front of the shop and put it in park. The police cruiser pulled in right next to them, though they had yet to turn their lights on.

“Keep your face turned away,” Clarice instructed her curtly. “Most of the media has fixated on your face due to your flamboyant hair, so I’m probably not as recognizable. Pull out your phone and pretend to be doing something.”

Aria complied, trying to appear like a screen obsessed human. The cops hadn’t exited their vehicle. They appeared to be waiting for Aria and Clarice to exit. Aria focused on listening to the conversation in the car next to them with her ridiculously sensitive hearing.

“I don’t think they’re getting out,” she heard the corpulent cop say.

“That’s probable cause enough for me,” the leaner partner declared in satisfaction. “Loitering in a subway parking lot.”

“You better go into the subway,” Aria said quickly. “I’ll wait here.”

Clarice was already exiting the vehicle, sunglasses and hat on. Her hair was in a ponytail, and she looked significantly different than she had looked in the brief glimpse that was recorded during the biker incident.

“Well never mind, I guess they are getting out,” the donut lord said in surprise. “Should we follow her in?”

“Let’s wait and see if her friend gets out,” the lean one decided. “We don’t want her escaping while we’re inside.”

“What if she doesn’t get out?” donut lord asked.

“We’ll grab the other one when she comes out,” lean cop replied. “If her friend tries to leave, we’ll be close enough to prevent it.”

“How much do you think they’ll be worth?” donut lord asked curiously. “She looked pretty hot. I’ll bet they’ll pay top dollar, especially if her friend is decent.”

“Probably ten or fifteen grand,” lean cop replied, sounding satisfied.

“I guess it’s just pennies to the people that buy them,” donut lord said wistfully.

Aria felt her face flush with rage as she finally understood what was going on.

“Clarice, they’re trying to capture us to sell to human traffickers,” Aria growled, her hands shaking with fury.

Clarice’s head whipped around to look at her from where she stood in line, her mouth tightening.

“I’m not sure how we’re going to get out of this without blowing our cover,” Aria said darkly. “They’re going to try and arrest you as soon as you come out.”

Clarice nodded and walked up to an employee.

“Excuse me, can I use your phone please?” she asked urgently. “It’s an emergency.”

The employee looked at her oddly for a moment, then fumbled with a phone in his pocket and handed it to her.

“Thank you,” she smile gratefully and started typing on the phone.

The employee was bright red, clearly not expecting a gorgeous woman to need a hero.

“Uncle Devon, there are some crooked cops waiting outside of a Subway shop to arrest us and sell us to some human traffickers,” Clarice said quickly. “Can you think of a way for us to get out of this without breaking our cover?”

“What town are you in?” he asked tersely. “Is it a state or local car?”

“Local,” she answered, telling him the name of the town.

“I’m calling the local police department right now,” he said grimly. “If the whole department isn’t corrupt, I should be able to get some heat on them.”

“Thanks, uncle,” Clarice said, relief thick in her voice.

“Walk over to the window while holding the cellphone to your ear and stare at the police officers,” Devon instructed her. “Make it obvious you are inspecting them.”

Aria watched her sister walk up to the window and stare intently at the police cruiser.

“Oh shit, is she talking to someone about us?” donut lord exclaimed nervously.

“Fuck, let’s get out of here,” lean cop snarled. “It’s probably a trap.”

The car next to them quickly backed out of the lot and sped down the road.

“They just took off out of here,” Clarice told their uncle.

“Good,” Devon sighed, relief loud in his voice. “Your mom says your too damn pretty for your own good.”

“Don’t I know it,” Clarice growled irritably. “I wish we weren’t trying to lay low. I’d have a long chat with those cops and whoever they were planning to sell us to.”

“It’s an ugly world out there, Clarice,” her uncle said sadly.

“Thanks again, uncle,” Clarice ended the call and took the phone back to the plump young man behind the counter. He had been ogling her whenever he thought she wasn’t watching, his expression somewhere between disbelief and eagerness.

“Thank you so much,” Clarice told him with a winsome smile. “You really helped me out.”

“No not a problem,” he stumbled over his words as he took his phone back with shaky hands. “Any time at all.”

Aria was still feeling an uncharacteristic rage, in spite of the positive energy coursing through her meridians. The thought of the very people meant to protect other people being involved in such a repugnant crime made her burn with fury.

“You okay?” Clarice studied her face, concern in her eyes as she got back into the vehicle.

“I’m not feeling like a very nice angel right now,” Aria grated, feeling the positive energy getting transposed into righteous fury.

“You need to stop!” Clarice snapped, putting her hand on Aria’s cheek and forcing her to look into her sister’s eyes. “Let it go for now. Please, Aria.”

Aria closed her eyes and took a deep calming breath, unnecessary as it was, and breathed out slowly. She reached up and put her hand on top of Clarice’s. “I was so angry. The energy switched from benevolent to something else.”

“I know,” Clarice spoke gently. “You were glowing.”

Aria’s eyes shot open. “I was?”

“Yeah,” Clarice confirmed, her lips curling up on one side. “It was pretty hot.”

Aria felt the righteous fury vanish as she dissolved into a fit of giggles. “Thanks, Clarice. I really needed that.”

“Any time, Aria,” Clarice murmured softly. “You’re stuck with me for eternity now, so really, any time.”

Aria laughed again as Clarice pulled her hand back and started the car. They pulled back onto the highway and continued their interrupted trip.

“We should seriously consider the super hero career path in the near future,” Aria told her sister gravely. “If we wear masks, we could totally take out some bad guys. We don’t really need cars to get around at the speeds we run. We don’t sleep. It’s perfect.”

“I really want to get those bastards too,” Clarice vowed, her eyes full of righteous judgement. “We need to ease into this role for longer than a day though. We’ve been angels for less than a day and only tested our abilities for a few minutes. We have some growing to do before we go full vigilante.”

“Do you think it’s the whole police force in this town?” Aria asked with a grimace.

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Clarice shrugged, her eyes flinty. “I don’t think they could have been as brazen as they were if the rest of the force wasn’t in on it.”

“That’s disgusting,” Aria grunted, her lips twisting in revulsion.

“Agreed,” Clarice sighed, her eyes burning darkly. “You remember what the trigger phrase was that transformed us, right?”

“To vanquish evil,” Aria smiled unpleasantly. “That’s right. It’s actually part of who we are now. We need to vanquish evil, just like Calypso needs to heal people.”

“Let’s discuss our new career path with the others when we get back,” Clarice suggested, a slow smile forming. “We are going to be avenging angels.”

“I like the sound of that,” Aria declared grimly.

They arrived at the music store a few minutes later. It was a fairly large store for the medium sized town they were in. As they walked over to inspect the percussion instruments, Aria heard one of the employees near the front of the store speaking to a coworker.

“Damn, I’m taking this one, Max,” the employee breathed in appreciation. “Those two are freaking hot.”

“Okay, Romeo,” Max replied in an uninterested tone. “Go get ‘em tiger-,” he cut off when he saw them finally and sucked in a deep breath. “Aww hell no, I’ll take this one.”

They both ended up wandering over, looking more dumbfounded the closer they got. Clarice glanced at them as they walked up, smiling warmly at them.

The two men seemed to be having trouble finding their words as they stared in open admiration at Clarice.

“We have a pretty big list of instruments we would like to purchase today,” Clarice told them with a charming smile. “Can we get some help loading it all into our vehicle?”

The two men nodded eagerly, their faces slack.

They spent almost an hour picking out and testing all of the instruments. The two of them had played a few of the guitars before settling on the ones they wanted. Several shoppers had joined the two employees to gawk at them as the two of them put the guitars through their paces. Aria marveled at how much better she could play as an angel. Complicated finger work was no longer something that required her full concentration and every scrap of skill she possessed. It was almost effortless as her fingers flew up and down the fret board, playing in sync with Clarice as they stood facing each other a few feet apart.

When they finished, there was a loud cheer and a few whistles of appreciation. She heard one customer talking to his friend as they walked away.

“There’s nothing hotter than a beautiful woman that can tear up a fretboard,” the man said wistfully.

“Go get her number,” his friend urged him with a push.

“Naw, man, she’s taken,” he sighed regretfully. “Didn’t you see the way they were looking at each other?”

Aria felt her cheeks burn and studiously avoided looking at Clarice as they moved toward the checkout desk. She jumped as she felt someone pinch her bottom and spun to see Clarice winking at her with an alluring smile.

“You are so bad,” Aria hissed as the people around them goggled at the display.

“Told ya, man,” the man told his friend wryly. “But damn if that isn’t hot.”

They loaded all of the instruments up, with the help of the two employees. They nearly dropped one of the kettle drums in their nervousness. Aria’s hand had shot out lightning fast and caught it before it hit the ground, emitting a gasp from the employee. She remembered kettle drums being heavy before, but it felt as light as everything else did now.

As they drove away, Clarice smirked at her from the driver’s seat. “We’re not always too pretty for our own good. Look at all of the help we got loading up.”

Aria giggled mischievously at the memory. She had always dealt with awkward boys who were tongue-tied and shaky handed before, but it seemed to have gotten a lot worse since their transformation.

“Is there anywhere else we want to go before we head home?” Clarice asked with a raised eyebrow, her sunglasses resting on her head.

“We never get hungry, so no, not really,” Aria answered, putting her own sunglasses up on her head. “Aside from the little hiccup getting into town, that went pretty well. Nobody recognized us at all.”

“It helps that our features changed with our transformation,” Clarice noted with an appreciative grin at Aria. “So. Damn. Hot.”

“You still got the cuter face,” Aria complained enviously. “Can’t I have my hair and your face?”

“I’ll trade you faces any day of the week,” Clarice agreed eagerly. “Your self-image is seriously warped.”

Clarice slowed down slightly as they saw police lights in the distance ahead of them. Aria stared intently, her eyes zooming in to the cruiser several miles away. There was a white Ford Focus with several young women sitting on the side of the road in handcuffs and under the watchful eye of the donut lord while lean cop searched their car.

“Pull over, Clarice,” Aria said firmly. They were still a few miles from the incident.

Clarice looked at the determination on her face and sighed. She pulled over onto the shoulder and shut the car off.

“You know what they’re probably going to do to those girls,” Aria growled as the anger returned, filling her with righteous fury. “I’m not going to let that happen.”

“Do you think you could do it without glowing?” Clarice asked with a pained squint. “We don’t want word of a glowing super woman popping up all over the internet.”

Aria closed her eyes and willed herself to calm down. The cab slowly dimmed as she regained control of her rage.

“What are we going to do?” Clarice asked, gesturing at the cops ahead of them. “Just throw some rocks and knock them out?”

“They’ll just do it again,” Aria ground out darkly. “They need to be stopped, permanently.”

“You’re not talking about killing them, are you?” Clarice gasped, her eyes worried.

“No, just making them rue the day they were born,” Aria reassured her with an icy smile. “A swift kick in the gonads seems like justice to me, for what they are doing.”

“Okay,” Clarice nodded, her mouth turning up at the corners. “But fast. We don’t want anybody seeing anything but a blur.”

“Right,” Aria agreed, getting out of her door. “Let’s go.”

She pushed herself to full speed and almost yelped as her clothing started to burn from the friction. Ignoring it, she moved in on the cops as they prepared to load the three girls into the back of the cruiser. They were moving like molasses to her heightened perception. She kicked the first cop between the legs from behind, launching him over the car. The second cop was already flying from Clarice’s kick. The two angels spun to face the dejected looking girls and pinched the handcuffs around the girls’ wrists, breaking the bracelet on each wrist. The girls’ eyes were just starting to widen from the flying cops after some kind of blur had shot by them with a gust of wind. The next moment they heard their handcuffs drop to the ground in pieces.

Aria took a split second to study their faces. The youngest girl was no older than 13, while the oldest looked about 17. There were tear streaks on all of their faces. The tears nearly sent her into a glowing rage again, but she managed to mentally clamp down on her anger and run back to their vehicle.

“That went well,” Clarice noted conversationally. “I made sure to fry the hard drives in their trunk that the bodycams record to, just in case it was able to pick anything up.”

Aria watched the cops as they moaned into the ground, curled up in the fetal position. The girls were staring around them in shock. They hesitantly started walking back to their vehicle, looking back at the cops after every step. When it was clear that the cops wouldn’t be getting up, they started their car and left.

“Yes, that went well,” Aria agreed with a victorious laugh. “We vanquished some evil today.”

They both felt a sudden stir in the energy matrix inside of them as something changed. She felt an itch on her back and reached back to scratch it, then froze when she felt the ridges between her shoulder blades.

“I think we might have some wings on the way,” Clarice whispered in awe as she felt her own back.

“Yeah,” Aria whispered back, her own voice filled with wonder. “We’re going to be able to fly.”

XXXXX

Calypso flew into their arms as soon as they got out of the vehicle, her eyes filled relief. “I’m so glad you were able to come back safely,” Calypso whispered fervently as she held both of them in a hug.

Aria gently ran her hands through Calypso’s hair comfortingly. “We’re invincible now, so we’ll always come back safe,” Aria assured her softly.

“It’s the bad guys you’ll have to worry about going forward,” Clarice informed Calypso with a wicked smile as she kissed Calypso on the forehead.

Aria felt a flood of energy building as the three of them held each other closely. What had been a powerful sensation when hugging Calypso was magnified significantly when adding Clarice to the embrace. She closed her eyes as the resonating energy arced through the three of them like a tesla coil. She felt a tingling sensation on her back where the ridges had appeared. The tingling grew stronger, erupting into searing heat. She felt her weight suddenly diminish significantly and a new weight appear on her back. She stared wide eyed as wings tore through Clarice and Calypso’s shirts, the tips touching the ground as the tops arced a foot over their heads. She could feel the same wings on her own back, almost like another pair of arms.

“I guess you really are angels,” their mother murmured in wonder as she walked out of the house toward them.

Aria released Calypso and Clarice as she turned to face her mother with an exuberant grin on her face.

“I guess we really are,” Aria agreed with a delighted laugh.

“We are definitely going to have to find a tailor to custom make some clothing for us,” Clarice declared, her voice tight with excitement. “We have freaking wings!”

“Wow!” Calypso gasped, her swirling eyes wide with wonder. “I can’t believe it really happened. I’ve wanted to be able to fly since I was a kid. This is so amazing!”

“The goods are spilling out,” Clarice warned Aria with a wink. “We might want to get some fabric to wrap around our shirts until we can get a tailor.”

Aria held her shirt up from the front in an attempt to maintain some level of modesty. Clarice and Calypso were doing the same thing, their elation tempered slightly by their nudity dilemma.

“I’ll go make some fabric strips out of a robe,” the mother said dryly.

“Thanks, Mom,” Aria said, following behind.

“Just stay out here for now,” their mother instructed her, glancing at her large wings. “You’re going to have enough trouble navigating the house with those wings without trying to hold your shirts up.”

“I feel so freaking light now,” Clarice laughed excitedly, her face radiant with joy. “We’re as light as you now, Calypso. I really want to try flying.”

“Modesty before mobility,” Aria cautioned with barely repressed anticipation. “Let’s wait for mom to fix us up.”

Clarice was bouncing from foot to foot with eagerness. She finally couldn’t take it anymore, launching herself skyward with a powerful leap. Her wings unfurled and she shot higher into the air with each wing beat. In a matter of seconds, she had risen to nearly ten thousand feet above them.

“You’re going to be seen by somebody, you goose!” Aria called up to her anxiously, her eyes tight with worry.

“Clarice spread her wings wide to stop her climb, then dove. She flapped her wings to increase her downward velocity, shooting toward them like a falling star. She finally pulled her wings out at five hundred feet and thrust down with a powerful wingbeat that brought her descent to a stop. It felt like a hurricane as the wind from her powerful wings buffeted them like a gale. Aria had to pin her shirt to herself to keep it from flapping away.

“Pull your shirt up, you trollop,” Aria called up to Clarice as she gracefully descended the remaining four hundred feet.

“Oh yeah,” Clarice laughed, her face filled with exhilaration. She pulled the tatters of her shirt back up just as their mother returned with some fabric strips and safety pins.

“You just couldn’t help yourself, could you?” their mother sighed, shaking her head resignedly.

“I really couldn’t,” Clarice agreed with another exuberant laugh. “You would not believe how fun that is!”

Calypso was watching her with parted lips and excitement in her eyes. She grinned as Clarice’s excitement became contagious. Aria could hardly stop herself from launching upward, but she reigned herself in firmly.

“Can you take care of Calypso first?” she asked her mother, smiling at Calypso encouragingly.

Calypso started to protest, but their mother was already wrapping strips of fabric around her and pinning them in place.

“I warned your uncle not to come out for a little while,” their mother told them with a wry laugh. “It wouldn’t be good for his heart.” She sobered up as she worked on Calypso. “How did the rest of the trip go? Any other complications?”

“Maybe?” Clarice replied evasively, her eyes not meeting their mother’s. “I guess that depends on what you define as a complication.”

“Spit it out, Aria,” their mother commanded peremptorily, her mouth tight. “What happened.”

Aria gave her mother a brief summary of their run-in with the corrupt cops as she finished Calypso’s wardrobe modifications.

“Good,” she nodded with fierce approval, her dark eyes flinty. “It’s better than what they deserved.”

Clarice blinked in surprise, obviously expecting some kind of reprimand. She smiled with relief, raising her eyebrows at Aria in amazement. Aria grinned back at her, knowing she was also thinking about what a cool mom they had.

“Okay, Calypso, hopefully that will hold tight until we can get some clothing designed to accommodate wings,” their mother finished with a satisfied nod. She turned to Aria and started working on her.

“Favoritism,” Clarice complained bitterly.

“You already flew once,” her mother pointed out reproachfully. “So, you can wait.”

“Aren’t you going to fly?” Clarice asked Calypso curiously. The eldest angel was watching Aria patiently as their mother wrapped and pinned fabric around her chest.

“I’ll wait for you two,” Calypso answered with a small smile. “It will be more fun if we all go together.”

“I hear that,” Clarice drawled in a redneck dialect, her eyes sparkling with anticipation.

“I’m going to be the party crasher and suggest that you wait until dark,” their mother said reluctantly, clearly not wanting to dampen their excitement. “If someone videos a trio of angels flying around the mountains, it’s going to be hard to keep this place hidden. There will be cryptologists and Calypso fans combing every inch of the place.”

Their faces fell at her words. She sighed in resignation. “Fine…but at least get up high fast and go far away. How fast can you fly?” she looked at Clarice with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m pretty sure we can break the sound barrier,” Clarice replied confidently, bouncing on her toes impatiently.”

“Not if you want to keep your clothes on,” their mother snorted with a laugh. “Until we can get something more tight-fitting, keep it slow enough to stay dressed. Maybe a few hundred miles.”

“Yes, oh wise one,” Clarice grinned at their mother as she finally started working on Clarice. “And I only say that with a little levity. You’re brilliant, Mom.”

Their mother stopped wrapping long enough to pulled Clarice in for a quick embrace before continuing her work. “That’s sweet of you to say.”

“May I ask about Aria’s birth mother and Clarice’s birth father?” Calypso asked hesitantly. “I’ve seen a lot of families over the years, but I don’t think I’ve seen one where the step mother or father shows as much love to their step children as they do to their biological children until meeting you, Emily.”

Emily smiled warmly as she stopped working on Clarice long enough to address Calypso, a pleased look in her eyes. “It’s just fine, Calypso,” their mother assured her. “Aria’s mother died in childbirth. Clarice’s father died in a car accident when she was two. I met Eric about five years later. Our daughters were the same age and were best friends immediately.” She paused and smiled fondly at Aria. “It’s hard not to love Aria as if she were my own. She had wanted a mother so badly, and she immediately poured all of her pent up affection out on to me. She was constantly trying to pamper me and could never get enough snuggles. I think I had my hair brushed more in the first year after meeting Aria than I’ve brushed it in my entire life.”

“Mine too,” Clarice added with an affectionate shoulder bump with Aria. “I think she was worried we would disappear if she didn’t pamper us enough.”

Aria was blushing profusely under all of the praise, her eyes darting around. Her mouth worked, but no sound came out as she tried to think of something to say.

“It’s okay, Aria,” Clarice told her with a gentle smile. “You can accept some flattery. You’re one of the most compassionate and loving people I’ve ever seen, and I love you for it.”

Aria felt her eyes fill with quicksilver tears as she pulled her mother and sister into a hug. “You are the best sister and mom,” Aria told them thickly. “I really am the luckiest person in the world. I love you both so much. Thank you for making me part of your wonderful family.”

Calypso was watching them with an expression of adoration in her eyes as she observed the powerful bonds of love in the family she had been adopted into.

Their mother gasped suddenly as her neck started to glow. Aria and Clarice pulled back in alarm, then noticed her glowing neck.

“Oh no,” Aria cried out in dismay. “I’m sorry Mom, we meant to get your permission before we let any angel tears get on you.”

Their mother’s eyes were wide as she stared into space. The gray in her hair suddenly faded and became black. The wrinkles near her eyes and neck vanished and her features became softer.

“Wow, I feel better than I’ve felt in decades,” she declared in wonder.

“It’s just the seed,” Clarice patted Aria’s shoulder reassuringly. “She won’t actually turn into an angel unless she triggers it with the key words.”

“I meant to tell the two of you that I think there are different classes of angels,” Calypso informed them, her face pensive. “I don’t think I’m the same class as the two of you. I think I’m a healer, while you two might be more combat oriented. I’m not sure what other kinds of angels there might be, but the point is that there could be other phrases that will trigger the transformation.”

“So, I just have to stop talking for the rest of my life if I don’t want to be an angel,” their mother noted dryly. “I’m not going to worry about it. If I end up as an angel, so be it.” She took a deep breath, then turned to Clarice. “Let’s get you finished up.”

Five minutes later, they were all modestly covered. The three angels shared an excited look, then leapt into the air and began beating their wings with powerful strokes.

Aria felt exhilaration like never before as she watched the ground shrink away from them. She laughed exultantly as she felt the wind flow through her hair. Within seconds they were above the clouds.

“Keep an eye out for commercial jets and airplanes,” Clarice warned them, her voice carrying easily to their sensitive hearing. “Which way should we go?”

“South,” Aria suggested, unable to stop grinning.

The ability to fly seemed so natural that she didn’t even have to think about it. They flexed their powerful wings and shot off toward the west. Her mother had been right to worry about their clothes staying on. The wind slammed into them like a wall as they blasted forward at near supersonic speeds. They had to dodge a flock of geese as they soared through the skies, dipping in and out of clouds.

It only took them ten minutes to travel a few hundred miles. They saw several aircraft in the distance but easily avoided them. With their telescopic vision they could easily see all of the details on the aircrafts. They stopped about thirty thousand feet above the Appalachian mountains, enjoying the view as they looked down on the peaks.

“Let’s go down to the peaks,” Clarice suggested, her face suffused with joy. She was gently pumping her wings to stay in place.

“Okay,” Calypso agreed, smiling with exhilaration. “I’ve never been on a mountain peak before.”

Aria curled her wings around herself and plummeted toward the peaks. She screamed with excitement as she dived toward the mountains. As she neared the peaks, she unfurled her wings and banked, smoothly curving around the tall peaks and then coasting back up with the air currents above the tree covered peaks. She dropped into a smaller dive and landed with Calypso in a small clearing on the mountain top. Clarice dropped out of the sky from thirty feet above her and landed in a graceful crouch.

“That was beyond belief awesome!” Clarice shouted in glee, her violet eyes dancing with excitement.

“It was everything I had hoped it would be and more,” Calypso whispered, a tear forming in her eye. “I’m so happy right now.”

Aria hugged her tightly, folding her wings around her and wrapping her in a tight cocoon. “I’m so glad it was so wonderful for you too,” Aria whispered as she stroked her hands through Calypso’s hair.

They stood inside her wing’s embrace for several minutes before the sound of a throat clearing brought them back to the present.

“Yeah, I’m still here too,” Clarice reminded them airily. “No need to worry about me. I’m just fine being a third wheel.”

Aria laughed and unfurled a wing and pulled Clarice into the embrace.

“That’s more like it,” Clarice purred contentedly as she wrapped her arms around them.

They stood there for another five minutes as the intimate act of energy exchanging across their meridians melded them into one. It ended when their delicate hearing detected the sound of helicopter rotors in the distance. Aria sighed, reluctantly releasing the other two angels.

She retracted her wings and stared toward the sound of what sounded like a fleet of helicopters. She zoomed in and saw half a dozen military helicopters. Two of them looked like Apache gunships, while the other four looked like cargo and transport helicopters.

“Do you think they’ve seen us yet?” Aria asked, feeling far less worry than she would have a week ago. It was difficult to feel fear when nothing could hurt you.

“Military scanners and cameras, plus satellites above,” Clarice murmured conversationally. “Yeah, pretty sure they see us.” She finished with a wave at the sky straight above them.

“Seriously?” Aria deadpanned as she stared at Clarice with a raised eyebrow. “You’re waving at the people trying to kill us?”

“We don’t know they’re trying to kill us,” Clarice objected, her lips twitching. “I’m pretty sure they want us alive.”

“Yeah, so they can dissect us,” Aria growled, her sense of overprotectiveness for Calypso triggering an immediate change in her meridians. The darkening shadows suddenly vanished as Aria began to glow brightly, her violet eyes pulsing with power.

“They’ve definitely seen us now,” Clarice muttered with a sigh. “Chill out, okay? Let’s find out what they want before we go psycho on their asses. There might be some young, dumb twenty year old Calypso fans in there who are just following orders. It’s not like we can’t leave whenever we want.”

“I’m trying to chill out,” Aria retorted tightly. “But as long as I feel like Calypso is threatened, I’m not going to be able to relax.”

“Maybe it’s just as well,” Clarice grumbled with a sigh. A moment later she flared into incandescent light as well. “At least wait to see what they want.”

Aria nodded, holding back the power she knew could vaporize the helicopters flying toward them.

It took another five minutes for the helicopters to arrive. The gunships positioned themselves on either side of them while the transport helicopters dropped repelling ropes followed shortly after by several dozen troops. They took up a perimeter around the trio of angels, their guns pointed at them. Aria could see fear and trepidation in the faces of many of the troops. She listened in to the communications as they troops moved into position.

“The CO didn’t say we were attacking angels,” an anxious voice spoke into his radio. “There’s no freaking way I’m opening fire on an angel. I’m not going to hell.”

“I second that,” several voices agreed with the first voice.

“Those aren’t angels,” a cold voice in their earpieces declared firmly. “Those are alien entities that merely look like angels.”

“That’s bullshit,” another voice answered disbelievingly. “They are the spitting image of angels, and they are freaking glowing like angels. I swore to defend god and country, and this is a direct contradiction to that oath.”

“Unless you want to be court marshalled, you’ll do as you are told,” the cold voice snapped angrily. “Now subdue the entities and load them back up.”

“Negative,” the same voice replied curtly. “I’ll take a court martial over eternal damnation any day of the week.”

“You bunch of religious morons,” a voice laughed as a soldier near the front aimed his rifle at Aria and pulled the trigger. A tranquillizer dart shot toward her at terrific speeds.

Her hand blurred as she snatched the dart out of the air. Deliberately, she pressed the needle against her hand and pushed until the needle broke into pieces.

“I don’t think tranq darts are going to work,” the man said, sounding much less certain of himself. “She just caught it out of the air and crushed it with her bare hands.”

“Why are you shooting at us?” Calypso asked, her voice breaking into multiple channels all around them. “What do you want?”

“Holy shit, that’s NOTESTOREMEMBER,” one of the soldiers gasped in awe. “I thought it was just internet hype when they said she was an angel.”

A voice began broadcasting from a loud speaker on one of the Apache gunships. “Lay down face first on the ground with your hands on your head, or we will open fire.”

“You don’t have any weapons that can harm us,” Clarice informed them coldly. “We will allow you to leave if you do so peacefully right now. Anyone still threatening Calypso by the time I count to thirty is going to be judged swiftly, and harshly.”

There was an anxious silence for a few seconds before over a dozen soldier pointed their weapons down and walked away. The remaining soldiers grew more unsettled as they were left to face the glowing angels.

“I’m going to take the pilots out of the helicopters after you do your thing,” Clarice told her quietly. “We don’t want them dying.”

Aria nodded slightly, beginning to grow brighter. The remaining soldiers had a change of heart and pulled back to join the other soldiers. Something about the brightening light seemed to alert a sixth sense of impending doom.

The air was suddenly shattered by the roar of machine gun fire as the gunship opened fire on them. Aria folded her wings in front of her, trying to protect her clothes. Thirty millimeter rounds ricocheted off of her wings for over a minute before the overheated gun finally stopped firing. The second Apache had not opened fire.

Aria felt heat fuse in her eyes as she stared at the tail of the gunship. A second later a blinding white light shot out of her eyes and vaporized the back of the Apache. Clarice launched herself at the falling aircraft and quickly tore the door off. She ripped the seat restraints off of the pilot like they were tissue paper, then pulled him out. It happened so fast that all he had seen was a blur and a sudden impact of G forces as he was pulled out of the falling helicopter. She jumped further into the helicopter and repeated the process for the second pilot, then sprung free of the plummeting war machine with both operators in her arms.

She descended to the ground next to Aria and Calypso, gently dropping the two operators on the ground, where they fell to their knees. The other gunship had been arming it’s missile bays after observing the futility of machine gun fire. There was a moment of hesitation when they saw the operators of the other gunship with them.

“Are you guys hurt?” Clarice asked the two soldiers curtly. “I didn’t have time to be gentle with you.”

Calypso knelt down by the terrified pilots, her swirling eyes studying them intently. “They just have some bruising,” she said after a few seconds. “Nothing broken.”

“You should probably get them out of here before their buddies fire on them ‘accidentally’,“ Aria suggested with a glare at the other gunship. The transport helicopters had pulled away several thousand feet when the gunship had opened fire.

“I have a better idea,” Clarice smiled wolfishly, glowing brighter as she prepared to attack.

The gunship launched several hellfire missiles as Clarice’s eyes blazed like the sun. Each of the missiles was vaporized, followed by the armaments around the helicopter. When she was finished, it was no longer a gunship, just a helicopter. The pilot immediately pulled back and started to retreat.

Aria’s sixth sense made her look up. A dozen miles away she spotted two F22 Raptors moving toward them.

“We better take this battle to the air, or these guys are going to get killed in friendly fire,” Aria suggested briskly.

“Let’s go,” Clarice agreed, launching herself up with a gust of wind that knocked several trees down.

Aria and Calypso followed her up toward the Raptors, reaching Mach 1 within a few seconds. She swooped out wide and then banked sharply so that she would be paralleling where the Raptors would arrive in a few seconds.

Clarice motioned for her to take the one on the right as she moved toward the one on the left. Her body began to glow incandescently again as she felt righteous fury fuel her meridians with wrath. She flew right up to the cockpit as the pilot tried spinning and banking to lose her. The maneuverability of an angel was so superior to that of the most advanced fighter jet that it wasn’t even comparable. She flew so that she was staring at the pilot through the window.

“Get lost now, or I’m going to fry your machine,” Aria commanded, her voice layered with an authority and power that easily traveled through the barriers between them.

The pilot’s face was hidden by his oxygen mask, but Aria got the distinct impression that he understood. He turned and began flying back the way he had come. She stayed right above him for several seconds until it was clear he was following her directions.

She flew back to where Clarice was leaving the other pilot to return to base as well. Calypso had been following behind them a few miles. They regrouped, hovering in the air several miles high.

“I’m tempted to go satellite hunting,” Clarice remarked with a glance up at the skies. “I’m not sure I want them watching us all of the time.”

“Do you think they found Uncle Devon’s house yet?” Aria asked worriedly, her eyes looking back to the North.

“We’ll head back and make sure,” Clarice assured her with a grim smile. “Now that it’s dark, we should be able to fly lower. I really hate that they can follow our movements when we’re airborne with satellites though.”

“Do you think they got the message that their technology isn’t advanced enough to challenge you?” Calypso asked curiously.

“I seriously doubt they learned that quickly,” Clarice snorted a short laugh. “We’re talking about the top of the testosterone pile here.”

“I think we can all agree that we freaking rock!” Aria told them with a wide grin. “We just took down the US Military without having to kill a single person.”

“Yeah, we rock,” Clarice agreed with a matching grin. “I feel like we’ve made it clear that we can handle ourselves. I’m not sure how much hiding is still necessary.”

“Really?” Aria stared at her uncertainly. “What about family? They would totally go after family to try and control us.”

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right,” Clarice admitted with a sigh. “But soon, I think, we’ll be able to return to the world. We don’t have a lot of family to worry about. Just Uncle Devon and Dad.”

“Maybe we should split up,” Aria suggested, her face worried. “What if they go after Dad? They must have made the connection that the angels they fought today are the same people that were with Calypso during the biker incident.”

“Okay, maybe your right,” Clarice frowned as she looked at Calypso. “Who do you want to go with, Calypso? Do you want to meet our dad?”

“I’ve met him before,” Calypso reminded her gently. “But I would love to meet him again.”

“Oh yeah,” Clarice grinned ruefully. “Fifteen years ago seems like a lifetime at this point.”

“Yes it does,” Aria agreed fervently. “Who do you want to check on, Mom or Dad?”

“I’ll let you check on Dad,” Clarice decided after a moments hesitation. “I want to see if Mom’s accidentally transformed yet.”

Aria giggled at the thought of Devon’s face if she did transform while he was there. “Poor Uncle Devon.”

Clarice laughed as she saw where Aria’s thoughts were directed. “Yeah, it’s been a pretty crazy ride for him the last couple of days.” She took a deep, unnecessary breath, and then pulled them both into a hug. “I’ll see you both soon. I know we’re invincible but be careful.”

“You too,” Aria murmured affectionately into her ear. “I’ll see you soon.”

Aria and Calypso took off into the night, dropping their elevation as they went in hopes of reducing their visibility to satellites.

“Do you really think they will be in danger?” Calypso asked, concern in her voice.

“We know they already knew where Dad was,” Aria responded as she beat her wings swiftly. “We are pretty sure they were leaving him alone so that they could see if he would lead them to us. As for the cabin, I’m pretty sure that satellite surveillance is recording all of the time, so they can probably follow our flight footage back to Uncle Devon’s house.”

“That doesn’t leave much privacy to people,” Calypso noted disapprovingly.

“They’ve convinced everyone to trade their privacy for security,” Aria informed her with a disgusted shake of her head. “Like Uncle Devon said, total control is every government’s dream.”

They flew silently for the last few minutes of the journey. Aria was surprised at how well her sense of direction worked from high up in the sky. The dark night was just as bright as daytime to her eyes, so she had no problem following landmarks and highways. At the speed they were flying, it only took them fifteen minutes to arrive at the house she grew up in.

They hovered in the sky for a few minutes to make sure there weren’t any stray bystanders that would spot them landing. They swooped down and landed on the porch. Aria knocked on the door. There were several lights on inside, so she was fairly certain he was home.

She heard him grumbling from up in his room. “Who in the world could that be?”

She smiled at hearing his voice. She had missed him fiercely over the last couple of days.

He opened the door and stared at her in disbelief. “Aria?”

“Hi Dad,” Aria greeted him with a small grin. “Got room for your little angel in there?”

“Is that really you?” he asked in astonishment.

“Yes, it’s really me, you ninny,” Aria laughed, stepping forward and pulling him into a tight embrace. “I missed you, Dad.”

He gasped as he felt the powerful angelic presence fill his heart with love and comfort. She pulled back and made a shooing motion with her hands.

“Come on, let’s get in before someone sees a couple of angels on your porch,” Aria laughed, pushing past him.

“Hello, Eric,” Calypso greeted him warmly as she followed behind Aria. “It’s been a little while since we spoke. How are you?”

He closed the door in a zombie-like fashion as he stared at Calypso in shock. “Calypso?”

Calypso nodded, her expression gentle. “I sang to Aria and Clarice fifteen years ago at the hospital.”

Eric blinked again, then pulled Calypso into a fierce embrace as tears began streaming down his face. “Thank you Calypso. I don’t think I would have survived if I had lost my little girl.”

Calypso smiled softly as she returned his hug warmly, saturating his soul with love.

Aria felt her own eyes become wet with quicksilver tears. She carefully made sure to keep them away from her father until she knew how he felt about immortality.

He suddenly laughed around his tears. “You know, her mother always believed you were the one who healed her,” he told her as he wiped his eyes. “I’ve always been a skeptic, and I couldn’t accept that she was healed by magical music. It seems I was wrong about a lot.”

Calypso patted his back comfortingly as her aura filled him with comforting love. “You’re not the only one with a lot to learn,” Calypso laughed ruefully. “Until your daughters visited me a few days ago, I was pretty clueless about almost everything.”

“She didn’t know her NOTESTOREMEMBER channel was known to the world,” Aria told him, her eyes full of mirth. “She also didn’t know that she wasn’t aging, even after a hundred years. She also didn’t know that she was an angel.”

Her father took a deep breath as he stepped away from Calypso, wiping at his eyes. “So, you really are an angel,” he commented with a faraway look. “I’ve been reading everything I can online to get an idea of what’s been going on with my daughters. I’ve seen a lot of people claiming that you were an angel, but my skepticism just couldn’t accept it. How did Aria become an angel as well?”

“We probably shouldn’t tell you that here, Dad,” Aria warned him cautiously. “I can guarantee this place is bugged. We’re actually here to take you with us in case the people trying to kill us decide to use you as a hostage. Thirty minutes ago, Clarice, Calypso, and I had a showdown with a bunch of military aircraft. We let them go after we made it clear that they didn’t stand a chance against us. We figured they would start going after people we love that are vulnerable. So far, they’ve just been watching you, hoping you would lead them to us.”

“Who is this ‘they’ you are talking about?” her father asked in confusion.

“Apparently, conspiracy theorists were right about a lot of stuff,” Aria told him dryly. “In this case, there is a shadow government that pulls the strings of every other government throughout the world and has access to some pretty advanced technology. Uncle Devon used to work for them.”

“Your Mom and I used to suspect that he worked for one of the intelligence agencies,” her father responded with a frown. “He actually came out and admitted it finally, huh?”

“Calypso was able to destroy the nanobots in his system that prevented him from talking about it before,” Aria explained, looking at Calypso fondly. “She really is an angel.”

“How long do we have to get out of here?” her father asked warily as he realized how serious the situation was.

“We should probably already be gone,” Aria responded as she walked over to look out the window at a van that had pulled up to the curb a few houses down. She could clearly see a man with an earpiece. “It looks like they are here. I might have to make a scene for us to get through them.”

“So, what, you’re a super hero or something?” he asked her with a half-smile.

“Way more than a super hero,” Aria chuckled with a glance at Calypso. “I’m totally impervious to any kind of damage, I have insane strength, speed, vision, hearing, smell, and can fly. Oh yeah, I can also shoot laser beams out of my eyes.”

He stared at her with a smile until he realized she was serious. The smile faltered and he watched her with a growing sense of awe. “You’re really that powerful?”

“I just caught up to an F22 Raptor and told the pilot that I was going to vaporize his jet if he didn’t scram,” Aria told him patiently. “Think Super Man kind of powers, without the kryptonite weakness.”

He blinked, then shook his head vigorously. “Am I even awake?”

“We’ll find out soon,” Aria smiled mischievously. “Do you ever have those dreams when you are falling? Cause we’re not driving to the safe house.”

His eyes widened as she flexed her wings slightly. “Don’t tell me you are going to fly me there…”

“I’m going to fly you there,” she confirmed, her grin growing. “Don’t worry, we already had some practice. Clarice pulled some pilots out of an Apache gunship and flew them safely to the ground after I blasted the back half of it off.”

“I really don’t like flying,” he told her nervously.

“Don’t worry, we’ll take care of the fear of flying,” Aria assured him.

Aria had been watching as a team of gunmen dressed in workers overalls got out of the van and began circling the house.

“Hold that thought, Dad, I need to take care of some bad guys real quick,” Aria told him with a roll of her eyes. “It’s like they have an endless supply stashed away somewhere.”

Aria took off out the door at high speed. She ran past each gunman and chopped them on the neck hard enough to knock them out. It took her less than five seconds, leaving a hurricane of wind in her passage. She was just below the sound barrier with her speed. She knew if she broke the sound barrier, it would probably shatter the windows in houses all over the street.

She returned with a grin. “Bad guys taken care of. Shall we go?”

“I don’t know about this,” he hedged, trying to back away.

“Oh yeah, first things first,” Aria frowned, studying his meridians. There was something interfering with them. “Calypso, do you know what’s going on with his meridians?”

Calypso peered closely at him before a look of displeasure appeared on her face. “I believe they are nanobots similar to your Uncle’s,” she replied disapprovingly. “These ones appear to be for tracking, I think. I will clear them out.”

She stood in front of him and began to sing softly. Aria watched intently, hoping to be able to understand what it was that Calypso did to heal people. As she watched, Calypso’s meridians began producing a pulsing pattern that seemed to follow the frequency of the notes in her song. The energy never left her body, but as it began forming what almost appeared to be runes, the meridians in her dad’s body began mimicking the frequency she was emitting, almost like she was training it. Aria watched the energy in her father’s meridians mimic the rune-like symbols until a sudden flash of current arced through his meridians, eradicating the invading nanobots.

“Yeah, I definitely agree that there must be different classes of angels,” Aria told Calypso as she finished. “I have no idea how you just did that, even though I could see it. The frequencies you are creating with your music seem to be making some kind of runic symbol that the other person’s body tries to match.”

“Runes?” Calypso murmured thoughtfully. “That’s tickling a memory again. I think it has something to do with language.”

“Probably the divine language,” Aria responded shrewdly. “There probably is a language that has power over matter, and being able to speak that language gives you that power.” Aria looked at her curiously. “You said most of it just comes to you intuitively, right?”

Calypso nodded, her eyes introspective. “I do it mostly by feel. The music is almost a meditative instrument to help me get into a certain state of mind. At that point, I can begin shaping the light by what feels right.”

“Let’s continue this discussion later,” Aria suggested, looking out the window for any other mystery vehicles. “I think it’s time to go.”

Her father had been listening to their conversation with a bemused expression. He probably still thought he was asleep. She marched him out the front door and onto the lawn. She gave him a bearhug from behind, her hands holding tightly around his chest, then launched them into the air. He let out a startled yell as her wings began pulling them higher swiftly. She let her meridians go to work at calming him, flooding his system with comfort and love. She felt him relax as she began streaking through the sky a thousand feet up, making sure not to go too high. It took them nearly an hour to get to the cabin because of her load, as well as her fear of going too fast with his fragile mortal body. Her overpowering aura had flooded his system with tranquility the entire trip, helping him maintain his calm. They landed in the drive way of the cabin about an hour before midnight. Aria longed to go flying high up in the atmosphere at night when she could just enjoy the stars.

Clarice was out next to their dad in an instant, pulling him into a tight hug. Less than a minute later their mother exited the cabin with their uncle. She walked up and waited for Clarice to let him go so that she could get her hug in.

“I see they’ve formed a line,” their Uncle Devon noted wryly as he observed the still bemused form of her father. “Did you run into any more trouble?”

“Not much,” Aria answered with an impish grin. “Just a van full of gunmen that were trying to sneak into the house. I knocked them out before they knew they were under attack.”

“From what Clarice has told us, it sounds like you two are an army all by yourselves,” Devon remarked with a faint smile. “It’s starting to sound less and less like you need our protection and more that you need to protect us.”

“That seems to be the case,” Aria agreed, glancing up at the night sky with a glare. “We were thinking about doing some satellite hunting.”

“You think you can fly that high up?” Devon asked doubtfully.

“I’m pretty sure we can,” Aria nodded confidently. “We don’t need oxygen, we don’t get cold, and there is still atmosphere up there; at least enough for what we need to do.”

“The only satellites that are going to offer you a lot of trouble are the ones in low earth orbit,” Devon mused, rubbing his chin. “Those are the ones that are going to have all of the high-resolution surveillance. They have so many of them up there now that you are visible to half a dozen of them at any given time.”

“Are you talking about the Starlink satellites?” Aria frowned, zooming her eyes in until she could see one of the internet satellites flying past quickly. “I thought they were just for internet.”

“Do you really think they would invest that much money so that a few rural bumpkins could get broadband internet?” Devon’s eyes were amused. “Those satellites provide internet, but only incidentally. Their main purpose is to offer ultra-wide band support for drones and other robotic gizmos that haven’t been revealed to the public yet. I wouldn’t expect the next attack by these people to include actual humans. You’ve shown that they are no match for your abilities, so I expect things to get more exotic going forward.”

“Maybe we need to go visit whoever is in charge of all of this nonsense,” Aria observed darkly. “Cut the head off of the snake, so to speak.”

“Good luck finding them,” Devon shook his head, his eyes frustrated. “They keep everything extremely regimented and compartmentalized. Nobody really knows who is really in charge. For all we know, it could be an AI that’s taken over already. Some of the decisions they’ve made over the years make that seem plausible, at least.”

“So, we’re going to be fighting the terminator?” Clarice gasped as she released her father finally. “Angels against machines! How cool would that be?”

Aria and Devon laughed at her description. Her father was too busy getting smooched by his wife for either of them to enjoy the joke. As he pulled his face back he studied her features in the bright lights of the yard.

“Did you get younger?” he asked suspiciously.

“Let’s go inside to talk about this,” Devon suggested, looking up at the sky distrustfully. “Too many technologies that can probably read lips or pick up sound.”

They all nodded and made their way into the front door. They walked into the front room and found seats. Her parents sat in a two person love seat, her mother leaning over to rest her head on her dad’s chest. The three angels sighed as they realized that wings made sitting in conventional furniture impossible. Of course, standing was no longer an uncomfortable position with their enhanced and light bodies. The positive energy coursing through their meridians brought them contentment no matter how they were positioned. They stood facing the humans as they got situated.

“I totally forgot that we need to find some new furniture,” Devon muttered in chagrin. “Let me get some of the kitchen barstools.”

“No need, Uncle,” Clarice quickly forestalled him. “Standing isn’t the same for angels. We are super light and don’t get tired. We also have this ridiculous euphoric energy filling us with happiness all of the time, so it would be impossible for us to be uncomfortable.”

He hesitated but nodded by the end of her words. “That sounds like an interesting tradeoff for not needing sleep.”

“You were going to tell me why you look so young?” her father was asking her mother.

“The reason our daughters are angels now is because one of Calypso’s tears landed on their hands,” she informed him, her head still resting on his chest. “They aptly called it an angel seed. Once the seed is there, it requires a certain phrase to activate it. As soon as the phrase is said, they turn into an angel.”

“Okay,” he nodded his understanding. “So, angel tears are how angels reproduce.”

“We actually have a great theory about just what angels are,” she smiled, an excited light in her eyes. “But that’s getting ahead of the story. Aria and Clarice were going to ask me if I wanted to be an angel. I was a little hesitant because the thought of immortality scares me. We were out talking in the driveway earlier today, shortly after they grew their wings, and things got a little emotional. One of Aria’s tears touched me. Apparently, they have a rejuvenating effect. That’s why I look ten years younger.”

“More like twenty years younger,” he disagreed with a chuckle. “So, you’re going to be an angel too?”

“Not necessarily,” she responded with a sigh. “I haven’t said the phrase that triggered it in Aria and Clarice. We believe there are multiple classes of angels though, and that there may be other phrases that will trigger it. I’m just going to continue as a normal human unless I accidentally say one of the trigger phrases.”

“Let me get this straight,” her father said, holding up a hand. “Angels don’t need to eat or sleep. They are invulnerable. They have super senses, super speed, and super strength. They can fly, heal people, and shoot lasers out of their eyes. Is that all of the abilities?”

“Pretty much,” Clarice nodded, looking at Aria and Calypso admiringly. “And they are super freaking hot.”

“Oh yeah, the laser eyes seems to be a class related ability,” Aria clarified, pointing at Calypso. “She seems to be a healer class, while Clarice and I are combat class.”

“So do angels have…I mean do you still-“ her dad cut off with a blush, his eyes darting around the room without making eye contact with them. “What I’m trying to ask, is do you, um, still, you know, have-“

“No, Dad, angels don’t have a gender,” Clarice told him sadly. Her eyes were sparkling with mischief.

“Really?” he frowned, a look of disappointment on his face. “Oh. Well, I guess they got that much right about them.”

“She’s so full of crap,” Aria finally swooped in to rescue him. “Yes dad, we’re still very female.” Aria turned to stare disapprovingly at Clarice. “You are a bad angel.”

“Hey, we’ve been over both of those points already!” Clarice objected vehemently. “We can’t be full of crap because we don’t eat,” she patted her narrow waist pointedly. “And we’re angels, so anything we do is by default, good.”

“Then you’re a fallen angel,” Aria declared firmly. “And fallen angels can be bad.”

“Do you need to punish me, mistress?” Clarice pleaded hopefully.

“You are too much,” Aria laughed, trying to keep a blush from appearing on her cheeks.

“Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum are at it again,” her mother chuckled with a shake of her head. “Some things will never change, no matter how much everything else does.”

“And now it’s going to go on forever,” her father observed sadly. “I feel a sense of pity for the future generations that will all have to endure this endless banter.”

“I’m starting to see where they get it from,” Devon commented in his deep voice with a smirk. He looked at the angels, wincing as the thought of leaving them standing around still seemed to bother him. “You know, all that would be necessary for angel chairs would be a divided back rest.”

“It’s not like we can’t sit on our wings,” Clarice informed him dryly. “We don’t feel pain or discomfort.”

She demonstrated by sitting in one of the other love sofas. She tucked her feet under her and leaned back. Her wings were bent under her as she sat. They stuck out behind her as she leaned back on them in the sofa. “See, we can sit just fine if we want.”

“That’s not uncomfortable?” Devon asked doubtfully. “It looks uncomfortable.”

“Not in the least,” Clarice insisted firmly. “Like I said, we don’t feel discomfort or pain.”

“Do you feel comfort?” he asked curiously.

“Pretty much all of the time,” she answered with nod. “And it’s not like it’s comfort you get used to so that it stops feeling like comfort. We have perfect memories, so we remember exactly what discomfort feels like. We don’t need the dichotomy of pain to offset pleasure since I can recall everything as if it was happening right now, sensations and all.”

“You can relive any experience you want?” her mother asked interestedly, pursing her lips. “So, if Aria wanted to relive her first kiss, it would be just like she was experiencing it now?”

Aria’s face lit up like a sunset as she recalled the memory, feeling Calypso’s lips under her own.

“I guess that answers that question,” her mother laughed, watching her mischievously.

“Hey, I missed Aria’s first kiss?” her father demanded in a hurt tone.

“You sure did,” her mother said with an impish grin. “It was so intense that it knocked Calypso unconscious.”

Calypso blushed a rich scarlet as Clarice and Devon laughed uproariously, but not quite as vividly scarlet as Aria.

“Look at that,” Clarice gasped between bouts of laughter. “Her face is the same shade as her hair!”

Her dad joined in the mirth, laughing loudly with blue eyes full of affection.

Feeling a sense of rebellion in her soul, she turned to the blushing Calypso and pulled her into an embrace, her lips latching onto Calypso’s. She felt Calypso’s wings wrap around her tightly, shielding them from view as she passionately kissed Aria back.

“Boo!” Clarice cried out disappointedly. “No hiding the show!”

Aria hadn’t kissed Calypso since becoming an angel and wasn’t prepared for the intensity of the experience. The energy in their meridians connected with a much denser bridge when their lips were together. Energy flooded between the two of them, the exchange almost buckling her knees. She gasped as she finally pulled back, her eyes wide with passion.

“Wow,” Aria breathed in awe as she stared into Calypso’s beautiful swirling eyes. “That. Was. Amazing.”

“Yeah,” Calypso whispered in wonder. “Truly amazing.”

“Sorry to spring that on you,” Aria apologized ruefully. “Sometimes I can be a little willful.”

“Do you hear me complaining?” Calypso asked with an enchanting smile.

“Are you aware that you two aren’t touching the ground?” Clarice questioned them dryly.

Aria blinked as she looked down. Their feet were several inches above the ground. She reluctantly released Calypso and gasped as she remained in the air. She tried to take a step toward a chair, and she was suddenly floating over to it.

“Every time you experience anything intimate you come away with a new ability,” Clarice noted with a curious note in her voice. “Are you unable to walk now, Aria?”

Aria tried to walk to the edge of the room, but she floated instead of walked, drifting silently over. “I’m going to be pissed if I can’t walk anymore,” Aria fumed, trying to make her legs move independently.

“You need to focus on the difference between floating and walking,” Calypso told her helpfully as she descended to the floor and began walking.

Aria focused her intent to walk instead of float. She slowly descended to the floor. She let out a relieved breath as she was finally able to walk.

“Okay, this one’s a little weird,” Aria observed, her head tilted as she thought about it. “I can’t really see a reason to float around instead of walk.”

“Then you’re not using your imagination very well,” Clarice purred seductively.

“Clarice!” Aria admonished her sister sharply.

“What did I miss?” Calypso asked in confusion, her brows creased. “This was easier when I could still hear your thoughts.”

“She’s just being dirty,” Aria declared primly.

“Can you float horizontally, Calypso?” Clarice probed, her eyes wicked.

“I think so,” the blonde angel nodded, her face going still for a moment as she focused on levitating. She rose into the air again, then slowly rotated until she was laying flat a few feet above the ground. “It seems to work well. I’m curious if we will be able to use this as part of flight. We wouldn’t need to use our wings to hover. Maybe not even to fly.”

“Clarice, you are a bad angel,” Aria accused, her eyes full of disapproval.

“I know,” Clarice admitted with a sultry wink.

“I feel like I’ve missed the punchline of this conversation,” Calypso observed inquisitively.

“I’ll explain later,” Clarice promised her with slow, sensual wink.

Calypso seemed to finally understand. Her face caught fire, and she quickly rotated back upright and landed on the ground.

“You really are a bad angel, aren’t you?” her mother asked with an amused shake of her head.

“One does one’s best,” Clarice smirked, eyeing Aria and Calypso with a lascivious grin.

“I feel like I need to bathe,” Aria complained plaintively.

“I’ll scrub your back,” Clarice offered with a wink.

Aria finally lost it, giggling uncontrollably at how outrageous her sister was. Calypso smiled fondly as she watched the two of them interact.

“I feel like maybe they should get a room,” her father suggested dryly. “Or we should go back to our own room and leave them in peace.”

Clarice suddenly jumped to her feet and was gone, leaving a tornado of wind in her absence.

Aria listened intently to see where her sister had run off to so urgently. She could hear the faintest of whines, almost like small servos. The sound suddenly vanished and a moment later, Clarice appeared again. She entered much slower than she had left.

Her parent’s and Devon were still in the process of jumping to their feet in surprise.

“Looks like we have a peeping tom,” Clarice informed them darkly as she held up the crushed remains of some kind of drone the size of a dragonfly. From what was left of it, the remains looked remarkably like a dragonfly.

“One of their stealth drones,” Devon identified the small handful of scrap electronics. “They are usually undetectable because they look and sound just like real dragonflies.” He looked up at Clarice curiously. “How did you know it was there?”

“These god-like ears warned me,” Clarice tapped her ear meaningfully. “I could hear the little servos inside of it.”

“Your hearing is that good?” he asked, his eyes startled.

“Yep,” Clarice nodded gravely. “I could hear a spider fart in Asia.”

“Thanks for the visual,” Aria murmured.

“Any time, Tweedle Dee,” Clarice grinned at her. There was some kind of repressed emotion in her eyes that Aria couldn’t identify. She would need to ask her about it later.

“Do you think we’re under attack?” her mother asked anxiously.

“My sixth sense isn’t tingling,” Clarice shook her head with a grimace. “Though who knows if that will always warn me. I think we should go scout around.”

“Agreed,” Aria nodded as she quickly went out of the house. Using her new hover ability, she kept most of her body motionless and ghosted out into the night, hovering a few feet above the ground. She tested the speed of her new hover ability, intent on going quickly. As she did, her body shot forward. She gasped as she realized there was no wind. Somehow, the hover ability negated any wind she would have normally created from her hyper speed.

It didn’t take her long to find an anomaly. Several miles way from their cabin there was a semi-truck with a long black box trailer. There were holes all over the trailer where more of the tiny drones were entering and exiting the trailer. Aria swiftly went to the back of the trailer. There was a locked door with a combination pad next to it. She casually grabbed the beams in the door and tore them out to the shrieking sound of tearing metal. She pulled the door open to find a command center with a dozen operatives at desks studying screens as their drones scouted the area. When they saw her in place of the door, they all scrambled to their feet, reaching for weapons.

“Good, now that you’re trapped in here with me, let’s have a chat,” Aria told them grimly.

“Get down on the floor and put your hands behind your head,” a man with sergeants stripes shouted at her harshly, his gun aimed at her chest.

“Clearly you haven’t been told what happened to the last team that pointed their weapons at me,” Aria observed with a dark smile. “I’ll give you three seconds to drop your weapons and start answering questions.”

She saw the sergeant start to pull the trigger and was in front of him with her hand restraining his trigger finger before he could do more than blink.

“I said it’s time to answer some questions,” She whispered dangerously, easily removing the gun from his straining hands. “But first, we’ll need to deal with some troublesome pests.”

“Clarice, can you bring Calypso over here?” Aria called out in her authoritative voice.

They waited for almost thirty seconds before Calypso entered the trailer with Clarice. The other operatives still had their guns, but nobody was firing as she stood in front of the sergeant patiently.

“Can you clean them up, Calypso?” Aria asked gently.

Calypso nodded. She began singing softly, words of power manifesting as runes appeared in her meridians. It only took a few minutes for her to destroy all of the nanobots.

“There, now that your nanobots are gone, it’s time to start talking,” Aria told the shaken operatives. “Are you contracted to the agency, or are you just regular soldiers?”

“The nanobots are gone?” the sergeant asked, his eyes a mixture of fear and hope.

“They are,” she confirmed with a reassuring smile.

There was a collective exhaling of relieved breaths from the other operative at her words.

“We’re with the agency,” the sergeant answered her, his eyes still fearful as he waited for his heart to stop. When he continued to live, his eyes lost some of their fear.

“What were your orders here?” Aria asked quietly. “Just to surveil us?”

“To gather intel,” the sergeant nodded.

“So, try to listen to conversations, map the area, that kind of thing?” Aria prodded.

“Yes, and observe your abilities,” the sergeant answered, swallowing hard.

“Are there any other operatives up here on the mountain?” she asked him, looking around the technological room.

“I don’t think so,” he shook his head firmly.

“How did they find us here?” she prompted.

“They didn’t tell us, but it was probably satellite tracking,” the man said quickly.

“We are going to have to take those satellites down after all,” Aria told Clarice with a grimace.

“There are going to be a lot of satellite internet users that are going to be pissed at us,” Clarice pointed out, her eyes full of mirth.

“They’ll just have to deal with it,” Aria frowned, glancing back at the operatives. “You guys can go now. Let your superiors know that we are coming for them next if we get even a whiff of anyone snooping around the area.”

The man nodded, watching them like a mouse watches a cat.

Aria left the trailer in a burst of speed, this time without the blast of air. As Clarice caught up to her, she glared.

“Hey, I want to be able to zip around without affecting the air,” she declared bitterly. “That’s not fair.”

“Well, you know what you have to do to get the ability now,” Aria told her archly, her lips twitching.

“It will be a hardship,” Clarice sighed exaggeratedly. “But I’ll just have to endure.”

They were at the outskirts of the cabin when Clarice suddenly wrapped herself around Calypso, wings and all. Aria heard kissing sounds and felt her face heat up. She tried to ignore it, but it was beyond her meager self-control. She looked at the two of them, noticing that they were levitating by several feet.

“Hey,” Aria called out in a deadpan voice. “You’ve sucked so much oxygen out of her that you’re floating.”

The kissing sounds continued for an additional minute. Aria couldn’t stop her cheeks from heating up the entire time. When it finally ended, Clarice unwrapped her wings from Calypso and floated away from her. Her eyes were wide with wonder as she moved around effortlessly without disturbing the air.

“This is so cool,” Clarice breathed excitedly. “This is going to totally change how we fly.”

“Yeah, no need to worry about the clothes getting torn off of our backs now,” Aria commented wryly.

“I wasn’t super worried about that,” Clarice assured her with a wink. “But the speeds we’ll be able to move at now are going to be insane. Let’s try it out.”

She vanished. If it wasn’t for Aria’s heightened senses, she would have thought her sister had just disappeared. She smiled, pushing her thoughts in the speed and direction she wanted to go. It was almost like instantaneous travel. There was a blur, and suddenly she was a hundred miles into the sky. She looked up at the stars in wonder, free from the light pollution of the world below. It was marred slightly by the number of satellites flying over head.

She sensed Calypso appear next to her, gasping at the beauty of the starry night. “This is gorgeous.”

“Almost perfect,” Aria agreed, watching another satellite fly directly over them a few hundred miles away. “I think it’s time to remove the eyeballs hovering over us. As she spoke, she began to glow incandescently. Her eyes grew warm, then blasted a beam of energy into the orbiting satellite, vaporizing it. She began moving from satellite to satellite, blasting each one like she was playing space invaders. A few minutes into it, Clarice joined her, grinning as she decided it was a game.

“This is going to take a while,” Aria noted after zapping the twentieth satellite. “There are thousands of them.”

“Did you forget how fast we are?” Clarice asked archly. “We don’t have to wait for them. Also, I don’t think we need to destroy them. We just don’t want them watching. Let’s just tear the camera’s off of all of them.”

So, saying, she vanished in a beam of light, looking like a shooting star that skipped across the sky. Aria grinned and went the opposite direction. She marveled at her speed as she practically teleported to each place she wanted to go. Within a few minutes, she met up with Clarice on the other side of the world.

“Well, that should take care of the worst of the surveillance,” Clarice noted in satisfaction. “Though I think we may need to take out the geosynchronous satellites up above our place too. They’re a lot higher up though. I guess it’s a good time to find out how high we can go.”

“How high up are they?” Aria asked, her tone eager. She would be in space.

“About twenty thousand miles,” Clarice responded, a grin appearing on her delicate features. “You ready to go to space?”

“You know it,” Aria grinned back, her smile splitting her face.

“You coming too, Calypso?” Aria asked the eldest angel as she joined them.

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Calypso declared fervently, her vortex eyes swirling furiously.

“Let’s skip on back to our side of the world and go to space then,” Clarice instructed, disappearing in a streak of glowing angel light.

Aria and Calypso shot after her, appearing over their cabin a few seconds later. Clarice gave them a sardonic salute, then shot upward. Aria shared an excited look with Calypso, then followed her sister upward. She felt her speed increase as she mentally plotted how far she want to go. There seemed to be no limit to how fast they could fly. In just a few seconds, they arrived at a large satellite.

“This one’s got all sorts of lenses on it,” Clarice observed as she studied it. She shifted the large satellite effortlessly and pointed the lens at them. “Everybody say cheese.”

“Cheese,” Aria and Calypso said together. Clarice grinned and pulled all of the cameras off of the satellite.

“I would love to see the bad guys’ faces when they see our faces grinning at them in space,” Clarice gloated with a laugh. “Okay, let’s take out a few more in the area.”

“How are we talking in space?” Aria asked curiously. “There isn’t any atmosphere here.”

“I noticed that too,” Clarice responded, pointing at Aria. “I can see your meridians generating sound waves as you talk. They seem to intuitively help out when they understand what we are trying to do. They are creating an energy channel between us, almost like beaming a radio wave.”

“Wow, that’s pretty awesome,” Aria commented, studying Clarice’s energy matrix while she talked. “I can see it too, now that I know what I’m looking for.”

They destroyed several dozen geosynchronous satellite cameras, creating a large blind spot over the Western hemisphere.

“Hey, look at this one,” Aria called over to them as she flew toward a much larger satellite. It had a grid of twelve squares that were closed, each square around two feet wide. She whistled as she detected the dense elements inside of them. “I think we found some of those nukes they hide in space.”

Clarice inspected the space silo curiously, slowly orbiting it. As they watched, a red light began blinking and one of the bays began to open up.

“I guess it has a proximity sensor,” Clarice commented as she began to glow brighter. “I wonder where they planned on launching it to when the sensor was tripped.”

“Maybe they are just controlling it right now,” Aria suggested, her face a mixture of curiosity and concern. “Maybe they’ve decided to just try nuking us.”

“Do you think it would work?” Clarice asked Calypso with a note of concern in her voice. “Could a nuke hurt us?”

“I doubt it,” Calypso responded dubiously. “I don’t know anything about nukes though.”

“I should probably vaporize it, just in case,” Clarice decided, glowing even brighter.

There was a blinding flash of light from the missile chamber that turned their vision white for a moment. Aria stared at Calypso’s and Clarice’s naked forms and started blushing. There was nothing left of the nuclear space silo.

“Apparently they won’t hurt us,” Clarice smirked, eyeing the two of them appreciatively. “However, they are hell on our clothes.”

“We are really going through clothing fast lately,” Aria sighed in defeat. “We really need to find a tailor.”

Calypso was as red as Aria’s hair as she tried to decide if she should try to cover up with her hands. Aria just ignored her own nakedness. Becoming an angel had purified her body and made it beautiful far beyond what her human form had experienced. She found it hard to be embarrassed when she had a perfect body. Even so, it was hard to stop herself from hiding with Clarice leering at her.

“Let’s go get some clothes,” Aria suggested as she tried not to ogle the other two. “We don’t have to worry about wraps or tight fitting clothes now that the wind doesn’t affect us.”

“Aww,” Clarice whined bitterly as they shot toward the surface at speeds well beyond hypersonic. “I was really enjoying the show. That’s okay, it’s just as good from behind.”

Aria ground her teeth as her cheeks flamed bright red. Calypso had her head in her hands as she landed on the deck outside of her bedroom. The two of them quickly entered their rooms in search of clothing.

“Don’t be a stranger, you two,” Clarice spoke from her own room, knowing they would hear her. “I feel like the show ended way too early.”

Aria knew better than to reply, but she couldn’t help herself. “Next time we’re charging admission.”

“Only if I get a lap dance,” Clarice countered, her voice full of sensual promise.

Aria heard a groan from Calypso’s room and felt herself smiling with amusement. Having someone else to embarrass made the experience less embarrassing for some reason.

“Are you three back?” her mom’s voice called up the stairs.

“Yeah, mom,” Clarice shouted down, her tone full of mischief. “Things got a little heated with the three of us and we need some new clothes.”

Her mother paused for several seconds of considering silence. “Aria, can I get a more honest version of events?”

“They detonated a nuke next to us in space and it vaporized our clothes,” Aria answered, sounding muffled as she tried to figure out how to get a shirt on with giant wings attached to her back. She finally gave up and settled for using a bra. She vowed they were going to find a tailor as soon as shops opened in the morning.

Her mother’s voice rose several octaves as she spoke again. “They detonated a nuke next to you?” she demanded in astonishment.

“Yeah, they did,” Aria confirmed as she exited her room in a pair of white pants and a bra. “We need to find a tailor today, first thing.”

Her mother looked up at her from the second floor steadily for a few seconds before her lips started twitching. “Nice bra, Aria.”

“So help me Zeus, I will fly you into the sun if you make fun of my wardrobe,” Aria growled threateningly.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” her mother declared innocently, her eyes wide with sincerity.

“She’s rocking the bra look, eh?” Clarice commented with an appreciative whistle as she exited her room. She was in short Levi cutoffs and a black lacy bra of her own. “It’s amazing how hard it is to make normal clothes work with wings.”

“I’m going to the library to find a tailor,” Aria announced as she hopped over the stair railing to land lightly next to her mother. “This is not my new look.”

“It’s going to take a few days for a tailor to make new clothes for you,” her mother warned her, eyes full of repressed mirth. “That’s assuming they aren’t backlogged. It could be weeks.”

“I’m pretty sure when an angel flies into the shop and requests a rush job, they’ll be accommodating,” Aria responded confidently. “After the last twenty four hours, I’m pretty sure the secret about angels is out of the bag.”

“You’re just going to fly in to a tailor in broad daylight, in the middle of a city?” her mother questioned her dubiously. “In a bra. Do you really want the first YouTube videos of you to be an angel running around in a bra?”

“Luckily, I move fast enough that nobody is even going to see me until I’m in front of the tailor,” Aria answered briskly as she walked down to the library.

“Are they back yet?” her father’s voice called from the veranda.

“Yeah, they’re back,” her mother called back wryly. “They’re having wardrobe issues.”

Aria blocked out the rest of the conversation as she focused on the screen in front of her. After opening up a new browser tab, she noticed the headline in the news feed. She clicked on the top link and began to read.

ASTRONOMERS BAFFLED BY MYSTERY LIGHTS APPEARING IN THE SKIES ALL AROUND THE WORLD

People all over the world recorded an unexpected lightshow in the skies last night, and astronomers are struggling to supply an explanation. The lights were moving so fast that they appeared to be solid lines being drawn in the night sky at times. A brief Starlink outage occurred when the lightshow began, but SpaceX claims it was just a coincidence and had nothing to do with the lights in the sky. Jerald McCormick, an astrophotographer who was capturing a comet at the time of the lights, managed to capture the best image we’ve seen yet of the light source (image below). Internet denizens have likened the source of the light to a winged person. Due to the speed of the objects and the distance, the images are blurry and indistinct, but one of the images depicts what appears to be an actual angel.

The light show culminated with a brilliant flash that lit up the ground over North America. The flash has been compared to nuclear explosions recorded during Operation Fishbowl in 1962, where the military preformed high-altitude nuclear explosions. Experts claim this explosion occurred much higher up than those in the 1960’s.

Given the internet’s fixation on Calypso and the claim that she is an angel, many denizens believe she is battling a shadowy organization that has allegedly been trying to kill her. Additionally, footage from earlier that night claiming to film a military encounter with three angels has been making the rounds. The footage is grainy due to being shot at night and is far from the supposed encounter. It does show three distinct figures, one of whom appears to have shot beams of light into the military aircraft, destroying at least one and damaging another.

One of the entities appears to have red hair, leading people to speculate about the woman who was seen with Calypso the day she resurrected a biker who had died in an accident. The woman, now revealed to be Aria, along with her sister, Clarice, made headlines again when their apartment exploded from what authorities claimed was a gas leak, despite there being no gas to the building. Aria and her stepsister, Clarice, have disappeared from public view, along with their mother. It is widely believed that the three of them are residing in secret with Calypso at a safe location. After making the connection between Aria and the red-haired angel, a YouTuber going by the handle of PlanetCommander has speculated that they are all three angels.

We have reached out to the pentagon for comment, but have not heard back at the time of the release of this article. A spokesperson for the pentagon announced that an Apache gunship had crashed during routine training in the Appalachian mountains, but that there were no fatalities.

Televangelists continue to label Calypso as a false prophet or fallen angel, in spite of her track record of healing sick children. One prominent televangelist went so far as to suggest that the children were being subjected to a kind of possession rather than healing, and that all of the children healed by Calypso should undergo exorcisms.

As strange as things have become over the last week, I think it is safe to say that more surprises are on the way. Check back here, at theshadowearthdotcom, to find out.

Aria absently tapped her chin after finishing the article. It seemed that a lot of people were already convinced that Calypso was an angel. She skimmed through some of the comments curiously.

Borked4life-> I was outside early this morning and saw the lights shooting all over the sky. It was insane! I thought there was an alien invasion going on or something. I did see some bright lights really high in the sky that looked just like that energy beam that took down the helicopter. Either there’s an alien invasion going on right now, or there really are angels duking it out in the heavens. I feel stupid even saying it, but I saw those lights with my own eyes. It makes a believer out of you.

DarkTtimeOfTheSoul-> I’m one of the soldiers that was involved in that video. They never told us we were fighting angels. They claimed they were aliens. I was twenty feet away from all three of them. The power of their presence was unbelievable. Most of us turned around and left because we refused to fire on them. We all recognized Calypso and knew she wasn’t an alien. We’re all facing court marshals now, so I’ve got nothing left to lose for disclosing this. The power they had was so superior to our technology that it isn’t even comparable. They could have vaporized all of us after the gunship unloaded all of its 30mm rounds on them. Instead, they saved the pilots after vaporizing the back of the Apache. The pilots of the other Apache were ordered to fire on them with hellfire missiles, even though the pilots from the other Apache were with them. They vaporized all of the armaments on that Apache without destroying it. They were purposely not killing anyone. They moved so fast that they may as well have been teleporting.

I know most people probably won’t believe this, but I had to tell my story. The US military wanted us to fire on angels, and we said hell no!

533!NG-!5-B!3L3V1NG-> Me and my sister and friend were saved by these angels. We got pulled over by some cops and they were planting evidence in our car. They arrested us, even my 14 year old sister, and were putting us in their car when a blur shot between us and the cops. They both went flying over the top of their car. They looked like they’d been kicked in the nuts super hard. Our handcuffs just broke into pieces after the cops were beaten. One of the blurs stopped in front of me for a split second and I immediately recognized Aria’s red hair. She had violet eyes, like Calypso. I don’t know why they were there or why they decided to save us, but if you are reading this, thank you!

Aria felt a warm glow in her soul as she read the latest comment. It was nice to see that the girls had gotten home safely. She felt a sudden need to continue helping people, almost like a compulsion. She wondered if this was how Calypso felt about healing people. Maybe it was hardcoded in angel DNA or something.

She glanced at the next comment down and facepalmed.

GODISGR8-> I can’t believe you have all been fooled so easily! Jesus warned us of false prophets, false christs, and false angels that would perform wonders. You have all been deceived! This isn’t rocket science people! These are wolves in sheep’s clothing luring you down the path to hell, and you people need to WAKE UP!!! REPENT of your foolish choices and return to Christ. CHRIST IS KING!!!!!!!!

Aria snorted derisively. Apparently, she was a wolf who was pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes. She felt a sudden urge to howl at the moon and laughed at herself. “What a funny world we live in.”

She finally focused on the task at hand: finding a tailor. She spent the next hour visiting website after website. She wasn’t constrained to local shops, since she could travel to anywhere on earth in moments. She ran into an immediate problem as she realized she couldn’t search using the word ‘tailor’, or all that showed up were suits. The thought of angels in suits resulted in a sudden fit of giggles as she imagined uptight, corporate angels with sticks up their asses. No thanks.

She finally had to search for custom costume shops, which inevitably led her to the West Coast. She found a woman in a rural Northern California town who specialized in custom costumes that were made to accommodate wings. She gritted her teeth and called the number, stamping down on her introverted nature.

“This is Tamra,” a woman’s voice answered on the second ring.

“Hi, Tamra, my name is Aria,” she greeted the woman warmly. “I’m trying to find someone who can make clothing to accommodate wings.”

There was a pause on the other end for several seconds. When she spoke again, her voice was cautious.

“I can make costumes to accommodate wings,” Tamra informed her slowly. “How much activity would the costume be getting? I mean, will you be wearing it frequently?”

“All of the time,” Aria replied, smiling slightly as she thought about how much ‘activity’ they would get. “There would be three different sizes, with ten shirts for each of the three sizes.”

She heard the woman’s breath catch as she spoke and frowned, wondering what she had said to illicit such a response.

“Would you be looking for exotic dress, or casual?” Tamra asked, her breathing slightly elevated. “And how durable would they need to be?”

“We could probably use some that are extremely durable,” Aria told her thoughtfully. “Just casual linen for most of them.”

“How soon would you be able to come in a for a fitting?” the woman asked faintly.

“Faster than you could imagine,” Aria responded with a smile. “Right now, if you want.”

“Is this really Aria?” she asked in a whisper. “The one with Calypso?”

Aria froze, suddenly realizing why the woman had been so out of countenance. She must have suspected from the moment Aria gave her name.

“Um, yeah?” Aria admitted hesitantly. “Will that be a problem?”

“No no no, not at all,” she assured her, words spilling out at high speed. “Nothing wrong with that at all!”

“Okay then,” Aria spoke mildly. “Would that be okay if we swing by right now? We’re kind of stuck wearing bras for tops until we can get some new clothes. Our last set of clothes got incinerated by a nuke that detonated next to us. My sister won’t stop joking about being in the bra club.” Aria tried to make the conversation as light as possible to put the woman at her ease.

“That really was you last night?” Tamra murmured in awe. “Were you really fighting some shadow organization?”

“In a manner of speaking,” Aria acknowledged dryly. “They’ve been causing us trouble, so we destroyed all of the cameras on their satellites so that they couldn’t track us anymore. We didn’t want to ruin everyone’s satellite internet, so we just settled for tearing off the camera arrays. I’ll tell you all about it in a minute. Let me grab Calypso and Clarice. We’ll see you in a minute.”

“O-okay,” Tamra stuttered, her voice full of anticipation. “See you soon!”

“You two ready to go?” Aria drawled lazily. “Or are you going to buckle down on the bra club?”

“No, I’m ready to go,” Calypso said immediately, her voice easily carrying from her room down to Aria’s sensitive ears.

“Fine,” Clarice sighed in a put-upon tone. “But only because I’m excited to see what she can make.”

Aria went up to her balcony on the third floor and joined the other two.

“Where does she live?” Clarice inquired, eyeing Aria calculatingly. “And can you find her house from the air without a GPS app to guide you?”

“That’s the best thing about perfect recall,” Aria smiled in satisfaction. “I only had to look at the map once from Google Earth and I remember exactly where it’s at. She’s about eighty miles outside of San Francisco in a rural little town.”

“Let’s boogie,” Clarice grinned, launching herself skyward. Aria followed her up a few thousand feet, then launched herself into hyper-speed. She arced across the continent in a few seconds. Tamra’s house sat on five acres of wooded land. She had a fenced in garden in the back and chickens bobbing around the front yard. It was a moderately large house that included a pool on the side of the yard. Tamra was standing on her front porch looking up at the sky expectantly. She let out a startled squawk as they shot down from the sky like a lightning bolt to land right next to her.

“Hi Tamra,” Aria greeted her with a welcoming smile. “This is Clarice and Calypso. It’s nice to meet you in person.”

Tamra held out a shaky hand and Aria took it gently.

“Hello, Tamra,” Calypso stepped forward and embraced the woman warmly. “How’s Adelle doing?”

Tamra stood, frozen as Calypso’s loving embrace wrapped her in its warmth of love and comfort. She went completely limp in Calypso’s arms, her face radiating contentment. Calypso let her stay there for several minutes. It probably would have gone on longer, but Clarice got impatient.

“Did you have a loved one that Calypso healed?” Clarice inquired gently.

Tamra finally came back to herself and stood up on her own feet. “Yeah, she healed my niece.” She finished with a sad note in her voice.

“Is she okay?” Calypso asked, concern heavy in her voice.

“She’s been missing for over a year now,” Tamra whispered, her face filled with anguish. “She was walking to a friend’s house for their fourteenth birthday, but neither of them made it there. We spent months working with the police and FBI, but they just couldn’t find any kind of trail. She had only been free of her cancer for a few months when it happened.”

“Do you have anything of hers that has her scent?” Clarice asked intently. “Even if it is old.”

Tamra’s eyes widened with sudden hope as she looked at Clarice. “Yes, I have her jacket still hanging in my mud room.”

“Take me to it,” Clarice instructed briskly.

She led them into the mud room at the front of her house and pulled a medium girl’s jacket down from a peg. “She wore this a few days before she disappeared.”

Clarice took the jacket and inhaled deeply before handing it to Aria. She inhaled deeply as well, cataloging the unique scent, then handing it over to Calypso as well.

“We’ll go find her,” Clarice informed her comfortingly.

“Can I offer you some of the wing fitted tops before you go?” Tamra asked, staring at their bras. “They won’t be a custom build for your measurements yet, but they should work.”

Aria smiled gratefully. “That would be wonderful!”

“Okay, fine,” Clarice sighed with exaggerated reluctance. “I guess it’s time to give up the bra club.”

Tamra led them through several rooms filled with automated cutting tables, fabric storage shelves, and giant print plotters until they reached a room with racks and racks of costumes. She went straight to a soft leather sleeveless shirt and looked at Clarice appraisingly. “I think this will fit you. It might be the tiniest bit tight in the chest.”

Aria felt her face turn pink as Clarice removed her bra and stood bare chested in front of them. Tamra showed her how to detach the shoulder buttons so that the divided back could go up around her wings. It did fit snuggly, pushing Clarice’s breasts together and displaying a generous amount of cleavage. It had a high collar with a small zipper in the neck. Clarice looked amazing in the outfit. It hugged her narrow waist line before ballooning out to cradle her large breasts, with a cutout to display her cleavage. She whistled at herself in the mirror.

“Damn, this looks awesome!” Clarice praised Tamra’s handiwork with an appreciative smile.

“Yes, it certainly does,” Aria agreed, blushing slightly when Clarice winked at her.

Tamra had already turned around and fetched another shirt. It was almost a match to Clarice’s, except it was green instead of white.

Aria self-consciously removed her bra and hurriedly pulled the shirt on. Tamra buttoned the sides up above her shoulders. The chest was less tight on Aria’s shirt, much to Clarice’s disappointment. She gave another whistle as Aria inspected herself in the mirror. The green sleeveless shirt had golden scrollwork that curled around her breasts and up the high collar. It had laces she was able to cinch to tighten the waist.

Tamra had a third shirt for Calypso, this one a brilliant white with silver scrollwork around the bodice and a cutout in the chest to display her generous cleavage. Calypso looked angelic in the bright white garment. She also got a whistle, making her blush to her roots. Tamra chuckled at her bashfulness.

“Okay, we’ll be back with your niece shortly,” Clarice promised Tamra confidently. “Hopefully her friend too.”

Tamra eyed them hopefully as they went back through the house to the front yard. “Do you really think you can find her based on her scent?”

“You wouldn’t believe how powerful angel senses are,” Clarice assured her with a pat on the shoulder. “See you soon.”

The three of them shot off into the skies, then split up taking different directions. Aria flew toward LA while Clarice flew inland. Calypso went North, her angelic face full of determination.

It only took Aria a few minutes of shooting across the bottom half of California to locate the scent, near Hollywood. She tracked it to a large mansion in Beverly Hills. She decided to fetch the other two angels before she made her assault of the mansion. She sped back over to the direction Clarice had gone in a few seconds. It didn’t take long to find her sister. Since becoming an angel with her sister, she had felt a sense for where she was at all of the time.

“Found her,” Aria announced, her voice grim. “Let’s go get Calypso.”

It took a few more minutes to find Calypso, who was up near Seattle when they found her. Aria led them back to the mansion in Beverly Hills.

She landed on the front porch and casually jerked the locked door out of its hinges. A large, vicious looking dog standing twenty feet away took one look at them and turned tail and ran. Aria followed the scent until she found a stairway going down. She went into the basement and followed the scent to a dead-end wall. She punched a fist into the brick wall, leaving a hole behind. She reached through the hole and grabbed the wall, then pulled it outward. There was the sound of tortured metal as it was ripped off of a thick track. Dust filled the air as she tore the secret door down. It led down more stairs. Aria could hear crying in the distance. Her normally loving energy field transposed into righteous fury as she guessed the cause of those tears. She bolted down the stairs in a blur, taking in the main room at a glance. There was a desk at the end of the room with a large chubby man holding a gun as he stared toward the stairs anxiously. Aria had removed the gun from his hands before he even knew she was there. There were doors in the walls of the room at ten foot intervals. The crying was coming from one of those rooms.

Clarice had already torn the door off of the wall by the time Aria had apprehended the now unarmed man. A naked fifteen year old girl was curled up on a thin mat, crying with broken hearted despair. The room glowed like the noon day sun as Aria lit up with incandescent rage.

“Who else is down here?” she grated at the suddenly terrified man.

Calypso was squatting down to talk to the girl. She stared up at Calypso in shock, her crying forgotten. She had bruises all over her face. Her wrists and ankles were swollen from what were probably frequent restraints. Calypso’s eyes filled with tears as she stared at the state of the girl, suddenly understanding one of the world’s most cruel realities.

Clarice didn’t wait for the man to reply. In a flash of movement and deafening noise, all of the doors were torn off of the walls. There were three more naked girls, one as young as ten. Aria could feel the heat in her eyes building up as she stared at the terrified man in front of her. She knew there was no way to let him live, no justice that would be served by leaving him to the court systems. With the wealth these people had, they could buy their way out of prison. The heat in her eyes reached ignition, and the man in front of her was suddenly vaporized.

“Your safe now, my darlings,” Calypso sang softly as the girls stared from their cells at the angels with hope-filled eyes. “No evil will ever visit you again.”

Aria heard sound somewhere else in the house far away. She smiled grimly at Clarice and Calypso. “Calypso, can you do anything for them? I’m going to finish exterminating the vermin.”

Calypso nodded as Adelle finally overcame her shock and flew into Calypso’s waiting arms. The girl’s tears vanished as the overpowering cloak of Calypso’s love surrounded her.

Aria flashed out of the room soundlessly, flying up the stairs and toward the place she had heard the sound. She recognized the actor as soon as she saw him. He was a regular Emmy Award winner. He blanched as he saw the brilliant light that was Aria suddenly appear in front of him. Her eyes grew brighter as she stared at him with pure wrath.

She could see the guilt in his eyes, the realization that his end was nigh. He made a desperate cry, falling to his knees to beg for his life, but his knees never reached the ground. He was vaporized instantly. There was no indication of what had happened to him, no burn marks on the ground, not even a mote of dust left behind.

She listened carefully for any other sounds. The rest of the mansion appeared to be empty, aside from the attack dog cowering in the back room. She zipped through all of the rooms anyway, just to make sure.

She returned to the hidden basement when she was finished, feeling no remorse at all after having taken two human lives. The four girls were surrounding Calypso, their faces filled with awe as she sang to them. Besides Adelle and the ten year old, there was another fifteen year old and a girl that looked around seventeen years old. The oldest of the girls had long blonde hair and finely sculpted features on a face that didn’t miss being beautiful. She was several inches taller than Clarice and Aria. Her beautiful face held haunted eyes that were deep blue and had seen too much. They all had bruises and swollen wrists and ankles. Calypso’s eyes were filled with quicksilver tears as she sang, her soul still heavy with the weight of what horrors humans could inflict on each other. Aria marveled as Calypso’s healing music began emitting runes that were mirrored in the four girls. Their bruises, wrists, ankles, and less visible wounds were healed as Calypso’s song completed.

When she finished the song, the four girls were in a state of trancelike euphoria.

“Let’s get back to Tamra’s and regroup,” Aria suggested, her face sympathetic. “We need to find the homes for these two as well.”

Clarice fell in beside her as they guided the four girls up the stairs and onto the lawn.

“You okay?” Clarice stared into her eyes compassionately, any hint of snark or sarcasm completely gone. She reached up and tenderly touched the back of her fingers to Aria’s cheek. “This was pretty bad.”

Aria didn’t trust herself to speak, so she just nodded, looking down. Clarice gently reached out and raised her chin so that she was looking into Clarice’s loving eyes. “I’m sorry you had to deal with this, Aria.”

Clarice pulled her into a comforting embrace. As Aria felt Clarice’s loving energy exchange with her own, she felt renewed strength and determination. She took a deep breath before, releasing her sister.

“Thank you, Clarice,” Aria whispered, her gratitude flowing across to Clarice on powerful waves of authority. “I love you, Clarice.”

A brilliant smile lit up her sister’s face as she stared back at her. “I know you do, Aria. I love you too.”

Aria took a deep breath and then addressed the four girls. “We’re going to fly you to Adelle’s aunt’s house. We are angels, so you are completely safe flying with us.”

The girls looked excited as they watched the angels expectantly, with only a hint of fear at the prospect of flying.

“I’ll take Adelle and her friend,” Calypso offered with an affectionate look at Adelle.

Aria nodded as she took the seventeen year old. She opened her arms and embraced the girl, just as the other angels were doing. Once their systems were flooded with love and comfort, she levitated off of the ground, holding her passenger securely. Calypso did the same, ensuring they were both secure in her arms. Aria was grateful that they had upgraded their flight ability so that they were wind resistant and no longer needed to use their wings to fly.

They quickly rose up out of the metropolis, gathering speed slowly to avoid harming their passengers. It took them almost twenty minutes to return to Tamra’s house. The constant flood of love and comfort their angel embraces offered was soaked up eagerly by their troubled passengers.

They landed in Tamra’s front yard. She was waiting for them, her hand to her mouth and tears streaming down her face. She rushed forward with a low cry and embraced her niece tenderly.

“I suppose we are at the right place for some extra clothes,” Clarice noted, glancing at the growingly awkward girls.

“Yes, let me get some clothes for them,” Tamra gushed, releasing her niece. “Follow me, young ladies. There are clothes of all sizes in here.”

She led them into the fitting room, and they were clothed in short order. They looked like they were going to a DnD game, but at least they were no longer naked.

“Where were they?” Tamra asked quietly while the girls were dressing.

“Beverly Hills,” Aria answered grimly. She told Tamra which actor would never be disgracing the screens again and she gasped.

“I never would have guessed he could be such a monster,” Tamra muttered, her eyes flashing with rage. “I hope he rots in a cell, assuming the court systems will do their job.”

“There isn’t enough left of him to be rotting anywhere,” Aria told her bleakly. “Or his toady that was managing them.”

“Good!” Tamra growled fiercely. “If only the rest of them could fry too.”

“They will,” Aria assured her with a smile that made her shiver. “None of them will escape anymore.”

“Lexi, can you tell us how you came to be in that place?” Calypso inquired of the oldest girl softly. “Is it safe to contact your parents?”

She stared at Calypso in surprise when she heard her name. A shadow of fear crossed over her face when she mentioned her parents and Aria felt the heat of fury rise up in her again.

“Are they how you ended up there?” Calypso asked gently, holding the girl’s hand comfortingly. Warmth and love flooded into her from Calypso’s touch.

She nodded, her eyes filling with tears. “They said it was modeling work, and that I needed to accept that this was how the world worked,” Lexi explained as tears spilled down her cheeks. “They said the money they got for it would go toward my college tuition. I never saw them again when they left.”

Aria made a mental note to track Lexi’s parents down.

Calypso pulled her into a comforting hug. She let the girl remain in her arms as they continued their discussion.

“Do you remember how you came to be there?” Clarice asked the ten year old girl with a compassionate gaze.

The girl nodded. “I was walking home from school yesterday when an old lady told me she dropped her glasses in the back of her van and couldn’t find them,” the girl had a self-loathing look as she continued. “She was acting like she couldn’t see at all, and I felt bad for her. When I got in the back to look for her glasses, a big bald guy pulled me back and stuck a needle into my neck. I woke up in that place today. They had stolen my clothes, and nobody would answer me when I asked questions. The fat guy hit me really hard when I started screaming for my mom.”

The girl’s eyes were red-rimmed from all of her crying, but she was smiling as she looked at Clarice. “I prayed that god would send an angel to save me. I prayed that Calypso would save me. I knew she was an angel.”

Clarice shared a look of intense relief with Aria. The poor girl had not been subjected to the same cruelties the other one’s had yet. While it would always be a traumatic moment for her, it was far, far less than it would have been. Aria thought about how fortuitous the chain of events that had led them to the little girl was. She felt an odd sense of gratitude to the shadow government for nuking them. If they hadn’t vaporized her clothing, forcing her to go and seek out a tailor, that little girl would be in chains at the hands of the vilest of monsters.

“Let’s get you home to your parent’s, shall we?” Clarice told the little girl cheerfully. “Do you know what your address is?”

After getting the girl’s address, Clarice opened her arms and the girl ran into them, wrapping her arms around Clarice’s neck. They shot up into the sky and vanished.

“We’ll take you two back to your parents now as well,” Aria told Adelle with a warm smile. “But first, can you explain how you ended up in that place?”

“A cop car pulled up and told us we were under arrest,” Adelle answered, her eyes hollow as she remembered. “He put handcuffs on us and drove us to another cop that was driving a van. They took us to a warehouse where some bald guy came and took us. We’ve been stuck in that place ever since.”

“It’s time to do some housecleaning,” Aria growled, her body lighting up as the need to vanquish another vile human pushed her toward the edge. “After we take you home, I’m going to visit the police station and take care of any cops that were helping those men capture you. I will make sure you never have anything to worry about ever again.”

Lexi waited with Tamra while Aria and Calypso took the two friends home. Whatever healing Calypso had done had been as much for mental scarring as it had been for physical injuries. They descended into a crowded subdivision and landed at a small house with an economy car in the driveway. Aria walked up and knocked on the door, ignoring the stares of the few people who were walking down the street. Two cars had pulled over and the drivers were holding their cell phones up.

The door opened and a middle-aged woman answered the door with a wary expression. She gasped when she saw Aria, her eyes growing wide. Then she saw her daughter and she gave out a low cry and rushed forward to embrace her, her eyes filling with tears. She laughed as she cried, overwhelmed with emotion. Aria let them have several minutes to reunite before she lightly touched the woman’s shoulder.

“We need to talk in private,” she told the emotional mother with a meaningful glance at her daughter. The mother nodded, moving back inside the home. Aria and Calypso followed, with Adelle’s friend. “Calypso, maybe you can get Adelle and her friend to show you around while I talk to her mom?”

Aria stared into the woman’s Aura, finally seeing the branding that Calypso had claimed contained a person’s name. Something must have changed in her understanding of spiritual energy, because it had never made sense before.

“Eilleen, we need to talk about what your daughter has been through,” Aria told the woman quietly.

Eilleen’s eyes filled with tears again as she realized what Aria was hinting at. She nodded and they went into one of the bedrooms. Aria explained where they had found her and in what state. Eilleen fell to her knees with her face in her hands as she wept bitterly.

“Calypso has offered some mental healing for your daughter and her friend,” Aria informed Eilleen comfortingly. “Most of what she remembers will seem like a bad dream, rather than something with emotional attachment. The local cops are the one’s responsible for your daughter’s abduction.”

Eilleen raised her face, rage and shock painted on her tear streaked face. “The bastards that I was working with to find her are responsible?” she hissed venomously.

“Yes,” Aria nodded, her body growing brighter with her own rage. “I’m paying them a visit after we drop Becky off with her parents.”

“What are you going to do?” Eilleen asked, doubt and hope in her voice. “What can you do? They are the law, after all.”

“Think of me as a higher law,” Aria replied grimly, her face as bleak as an executioner. “They will share the same fate as the bastards who were holding your daughter.”

“Won’t that get you into a lot of trouble?” Eilleen stared at her worriedly, her cheeks damp with her storm of weeping.

“We’ve been dealing with much bigger fish than rogue police departments,” Aria assured her with a slight smile. “We already had a showdown with the US military and helped them understand that they are no longer the super power around here anymore.”

Eilleen watched her with a kind of hesitant hope. “Are you really angels?”

“Yes, we really are,” Aria nodded with a wry smile. “But we never have, nor do we now, serve a deity. The religions have made up their own ideas about angels based on their historical interactions in times past.”

Eilleen studied Aria with cautious optimism. “So, all of that stuff about heaven and hell is just made up?”

“I’m assuming that is the case,” Aria shrugged noncommittally. “I do know that we have spirits. I can see the energy matrix your spirit generates throughout your meridians. However, what happens to spirits after your physical body dies is outside of my realm of knowledge. Calypso might know more, but it’s hard to say.”

Eilleen sighed discontentedly. “On the one hand, I wish hell existed so that these horrible people could burn. On the other hand, the idea of needing the constant threat of judgement to force you to be a good person has always bothered me. Can’t people be nice to each other without the fear of punishment?”

Aria let out peals of laughter at Eilleen’s assessment. “I have thought the same thing many times, Eilleen.” She held her hand out to the kneeling Eilleen and gently pulled her up. “Calypso really has healed her mental scars as well. The horrors your daughter experienced will be far less traumatic than they would have been.”

“Thank you so much for bringing my baby back to me, Aria,” Eilleen said gratefully, her eyes shining with tears. “I had given up hope that I would ever see them again.”

Aria pulled her into a hug, charging her full of love and comfort. Eilleen gasped as the powerful emotions filled her being, clinging to Aria as her soul hungrily drank up the positive feelings. She held her for several minutes before Eilleen stepped back. She stared at Aria in awe, her face radiating wonder.

“You really are angels,” she whispered, a hand covering her mouth.

Aria nodded once with a warm smile. “Eilleen, we’re going to take Becky to her parent’s now. After that, I’m paying a visit to the local police station to find out how deep the rot goes.”

Eilleen nodded slowly, her eyes still filled with wonder.

“Do you know how to contact Becky’s parents?” Aria asked hopefully. “We really lucked out that you were home, but I want to make sure that Becky’s parents are available.”

“I’ll call them right now,” Eilleen enthused, rushing out of the room to get her phone. “They both work in town and shouldn’t take too long to arrive.”

Aria nodded as Eilleen quickly called Becky’s mother.

“Hello, Eilleen, how are you?” a voice asked with a note of concern. Aria could hear the subtle undercurrents in her tone, evidence of a deep sadness.

“Kate, I need you to come to my house right now, no questions asked,” Eilleen told her firmly. “Can you do that for me?”

“What’s wrong?” Kate’s voice was alarmed.

“No questions,” Eilleen reminded her, unable to keep the jubilation out of her tone.

“Okay, I’m on my way,” Kate replied, a sudden spark of hope in her voice.

“Tell Ben to come too,” Eilleen added quickly.

“Have you heard something about our baby’s?” Kate asked, her voice breaking as she spoke.

“Just come now,” Eilleen answered, a smile in her voice.

Aria smiled as Eilleen hung up the phone, her eyes full of joy as she witnessed a long overdue reunion.

Adelle came running into the room with Becky, their eyes filled with excitement.

“Calypso is NOTESTOREMEMBER!” they told their mother excitedly. “She played my keyboard and made a song up in just a few minutes!”

Aria felt a brief pang of sadness, realizing the girls had been imprisoned when the rest of the world found out about Calypso.

“Calypso, this is the second time you’ve saved my daughter’s life,” Eilleen declared with an emotional smile. “If there is ever anything I can do for you, anything at all, please do not hesitate to tell me.”

Calypso smiled angelically and pulled her into a warm embrace. “The best thing you can do for me is cherish your beautiful girl,” Calypso whispered fondly.

They heard the sound of honking outside of the house. Eilleen frowned as the honking continued and moved to look out the front window. She gasped, her eyes going wide.

“What in the world is everyone doing here?” she asked wonderingly.

“Is there a crowd out there?” Aria asked shrewdly, her heart sinking.

“There are cars backed all the way up the street and there are people all over my lawn,” Eilleen exclaimed in bewilderment. “What in the world is going on?”

“I think that’s our fault,” Aria admitted with a sigh. “Quite a few people saw us land here and then come into your house. Word must have gotten around.”

There was the sound of sirens as a police car weaved through the traffic jam. When it arrived in front of their house, two policemen exited the car and started barking orders for people to keep moving. It was a useless gesture. Nobody budged.

Adelle and Becky walked into the living room to look out the window as well. When they saw the policeman, they both went rigid with sudden terror. Aria walked up to the two of them, her form visible to the people outside of the house.

“Were those officers involved in your abduction?” Aria asked them quietly.

Adelle nodded quickly, her eyes staring fearfully at the policeman.

Aria felt her core ignite as blazing fury filled her for the second time that day. She walked out of the house and toward the cops. People were staring at her with awe, their phones held up to record. She marched up to the cops as they turned to see where the brilliant radiance was coming from. When they saw her glaring at them like an avenging angel, their eyes grew wide with sudden fear.

“Your job is to protect the innocent,” Aria told them, her voice layered with authority. “You have tarnished your souls with your heinous acts. Selling children to human traffickers is one of the lowest forms of human depravity. Make better choices in your next life.”

As she finished speaking, her eyes blazed brightly and a beam of pure energy shot into both cops, vaporizing them instantly.

The people in the crowd pulled back fearfully when they saw the two men vaporized. When Aria’s glow diminished and she became her normal color again, they relaxed, surging forward again to try and get a closer look at the angel.

A middle-aged woman was pushing through the crowd as she tried to reach the house. When she finally broke through the press of bodies and came face-to-face with Aria, she pulled up short with a gasp of surprise. The moment only lasted a moment. Becky came running out the front door toward her mother with a squeal of delight, tackling her into a fierce embrace. Her mother was suddenly sobbing as she clung to her daughter, crying and laughing as she tried to squeeze her tightly enough that she would never disappear again.

“Oh Becky, where have you been?” her mother sobbed as she pulled back long enough to look into her daughter’s face. “I never thought I would see you again.”

“We were saved by angels, mom,” Becky told her mother with a brilliant smile. “They just tore the doors off of our cells and vaporized the men hurting us.”

Her mother’s eyes went wide as she realized where her daughter had been. She closed her eyes as tears poured down her cheeks, pulling her daughter into a much gentler embrace. I’m so so sorry, Becky,” she choked out in an emotional voice. “I should have been there to protect you.”

“It wasn’t your fault Mom,” Becky patted her mother’s back comfortingly. “There were some cops that arrested us and took us to those other guys.”

“Which cops?” her mother’s voice was suddenly sharp and her eyes wrathful.

“They were standing there a second ago,” Becky pointed toward the cop car. “But Aria vaporized them with her eyes.”

She looked over at Aria again, suddenly realizing once again that there was an angel in front of her. “You saved my baby?”

“Me and Calypso and Clarice, yes,” Aria nodded with a gentle smile on her face.

Calypso came out the front door with Eilleen and a sudden roar filled the air as everyone in the crowd cheered. Aria grinned at the healer as she came to a startled halt. It was easy to forget that she was the most famous musician in the world. She had a lot of fans, and this was the first time anyone had ever seen her in public.

Calypso gave a shy wave and a smile, producing another roar from the crowd.

“We probably better go,” Aria spoke into Kate’s ear to be heard over the cheers. “But I wanted you to know that Calypso healed your daughter of both physical and mental scars, so the last year will seem like more of a bad dream to her than a real experience.”

Kate studied Aria’s eyes as her own brimmed with tears. She finally nodded, mouthing a thank you with her heart in her eyes. Aria wrapped her arms around mother and child, instilling love and hope before walking back to where Calypso was watching her adoring fans with a light blush on her cheeks.

“I’d say it’s time to go now,” Aria informed her with a small smile. “Wave goodbye to your fans.”

Calypso glanced at her sidelong with a one-sided smile, then raised one of her arms high and waved. The crowed whistled and cheered with renewed vigor. The two of them launched into the air at speeds just below the sound barrier. Everyone’s head jerked upward to stare at them as they quickly flew away.

“Back to Tamra’s?” Calypso inquired with a questioning look.

“Police station,” Aria growled, her face like a thundercloud. “It’s time to find out how far the taint has spread.”

Chapter 7

They dropped out of the sky in a blur of light, landing in front of the police station. Aria strode inside, glowing with rage.

There were gasps and yells as the glowing angel walked into the station. The front desk was staffed by a short, middle-aged man with a shaved head. There were several seats in the main room for visitors, with three of them occupied. Aria walked up to the officer behind the window at the front desk, her eyes glowing violet while the rest of her glowed white, making her brilliant red hair stand out even more.

“I need to speak with the police chief immediately,” Aria informed the man, her voice layered with authority and power.

The man was frozen in a kind of stupefied shock. She fluffed her wings aggressively, making the man jump skittishly. “The police chief. Now.”

“H-h-e’s out of town,” the man stuttered, his eyes filled with awe and terror.

Aria studied his meridians intently, looking for the streaks of tainted energy she had begun to associate with evil, like the men she had killed in Beverly Hills. The man’s aura was clear of any kind of taint, even showing a fair amount of purity and compassion. Aria smiled inwardly to herself as she realized she was getting closer to being able to see auras the way Calypso did.

“How long have you worked on the police force, Jared?” she asked him in a less intimidating voice.

“Almost three-“ he stopped to lick dry lips before beginning again. “Almost three years now,”

“There are officers here aiding and abetting human traffickers,” Aria declared, watching his aura closely for any sign of surprise. “Were you aware of this repugnant activity?”

There was an astonished gasp from the three visitors who were sitting in the waiting area. She could practically feel the phones being held up by the arms of the visitors recording them.

The man was like a mouse cornered by a cat. She could see in both his aura and his eyes that he was aware of something.

“How much do you know about it?” she asked him, forcing the harshness out of her voice. “I’m not going to lie to you, Jared. I’m going to kill every last one of them unless there is a very compelling reason for me to show restraint.”

There was another gasp and the sound of breath catching from the visitors at her dark pronouncement.

“I didn’t know it was human trafficking,” he spoke quickly, his eyes worried at her talk of killing. “I just knew they were doing something illegal. There is a clique of about fifteen officers who are involved.”

“How many of them are here in the office right now?” Aria inquired, noticing that someone in the back offices had finally discovered there was an angel in the building. She heard them going door to door telling the other employees about her presence. She smelled fear from some of them at the revelation, stark and rank. The ones without fear quickly gathered in the briefing room and started fighting about who would get to talk to the angel.

“Um, I think, um, maybe eight?” he continued fumbling his words.

“Thank you, Jared,” she told him with a tight smile. “You’re a good cop.”

He blinked when she was suddenly no longer there. He didn’t have time to wonder where she went due to a deafening bang as the steel door that separated the offices from the front area suddenly buckled inward, taking most of the door frame and bricks with it. There were several startled yelps that cut off right after they started.

Aria had followed her nose to the stench of fear, knocking the men out with a chop to the neck quicker than the eye could follow. Some of them were in their own offices while others were in an open office layout. There were a total of eight who stunk of fear, confirming Jared’s estimate.

“How many of you knew that your coworkers were trafficking children?” Aria asked the stupefied officers as she appeared suddenly in their midst at the front of the briefing room. She studied their auras intently but detected no malevolence in their auras. She had been losing faith in the police after two back-to-back incidents with dirty cops. It was nice to see there were still some good cops.

To the people in the briefing room the bang from her breaking the door had happened at the same time that she arrived. They were unaware of their unconscious colleagues.

At her words, one of the three women gasped. Several of them blanched at the accusation and there was more than one curse.

Calypso suddenly appeared next to her so fast that it looked like she had teleported. Recognition lit up in every eye in the room as they stared at arguably the most famous person in the world.

“These are good people,” Calypso murmured in relief. “Their auras are pure.”

“You’re Calypso and Aria,” one of the young men spoke in reverent tones as he stared at Calypso almost worshipfully. “You really are angels.” He broke off and punched the officer next to him in the arm playfully. “I told you she was an angel.”

“I’m not going to be a sore loser,” his friend sighed with a rueful shake of his head. “You were right.”

“Is the police chief involved in the trafficking operation?” Aria interrupted, trying to get the conversation back under control.

“I think so,” a small dark haired woman said quietly.

“Nancy, can you tell us what you know about it?” Aria asked gently.

The woman flinched when she heard her name, as if it confirmed everything she had been told about heaven, angels, and hell. Her voice was shaky as she spoke.

“The chief ignored too many complaints against certain officers,” she explained, her eyes worried. “He would come down hard on the rest of us for anything outside of protocol, but his inner circle of buddies never caught heat for anything they did. There was a lot of abuse reported from the community for how they handled themselves. They made no secret that they were above the law and would arrest women they found attractive so that they could grope them when they roughed them up. The chief had too many closed door meetings with that group too. When kids turned up missing, it was always his inner group that handled the investigations. I submitted complaints to Internal Affairs, but they dismissed them as spurious accusations. I think there are more people involved, higher up the food chain.”

“All the way to the top,” Aria nodded grimly. “And they’re going to get what’s coming to them soon.”

A few of the officers were staring at Nancy in stunned incredulity, their eyes wide and their faces slack.

“The chief was a human trafficker?” a blue eyed Leroy asked in disbelief. “But he’s a family man! He’s got children, for god’s sake!”

“Leroy, there probably isn’t a city on earth that hasn’t had some tie to human trafficking, however tangential,” Aria told him sadly. “There is a whole hidden class of people who have malice in their hearts that walk, talk, and act just like you and other good people. They are drawn to power and exploit societies hierarchal structure to exercise their dark and twisted desires in secret. That time has come to an end. The time of deceit and aggression is over. We’re going to fix this broken world and end the nightmare so many innocent souls are trapped inside of once and for all.”

The words she spoke felt like they were coming from somewhere deep down inside of her. They felt right when she heard herself say them, like they were the proper instructions for a kit that needed to be put together.

Calypso was looking at her appraisingly, her lips pursed in a way that Aria felt looked too inviting.

“How do you know our names?” Leroy asked, his face bright with hope. “Can you read our minds?”

“Your name is written on your soul,” Calypso informed him, her eyes studying each of them individually. “Though Aria cannot read your minds, a person’s aura reveals much about how they feel and what kind of a person they are. You are all good people, and it warms my soul to feel your purity and light.”

At Calypso’s words, Nancy slowly deflated with relief. Another person thinking we are here to represent a deity and dispense judgement, she thought to herself wryly. Of course, she was there to dispense judgement, to a point.

Aria heard groaning in the other room. Like a switch had been flipped, she went from benevolent angel to avenging angel instantaneously, light pouring out of her as she exited the room and stared at the man slowly trying to get to his feet.

“Martin Grubbs, you have violated children for greed and lust,” Aria intoned as her eyes grew brighter. “May you make better choices in your next life.”

As she finished, the light from her eyes shot an intense beam of brilliant light that instantly vaporized him. In less than a second she had also vaporized the other seven corrupt cops.

“What the hell is going on here?” a voice demanded from where she had destroyed the door to access the office area.

She felt his aura pulse like sickening slime as she turned to face him, revulsion in her eyes. His eyes widened when he finally realized he was in front of an angel. Before he could do or say anything else, he was vaporized as well.

“That makes eleven,” Aria noted grimly. “Four left.”

Several of the officers had followed her out to see what she was doing. Their faces were masks of shock and trepidation as they witnessed her burning their colleagues from existence with less emotion than a person would show swatting a fly.

“Are they dead?” Nancy quavered, her eyes staring at Aria with a fanatical zeal.

“Yes,” Aria gave a definitive nod. “There are four more that need to be dealt with, including the chief. There are some young girls that I promised would never be harmed again by these monsters, and I intend to make sure that remains true. What would be the best way to get everyone into the station? I would rather not have to hunt them down one by one.”

“It’s shift change in a few minutes,” Nancy informed her helpfully. “That’s why Derek showed up a minute ago.”

“Thank you, Nancy,” Aria smiled appreciatively at the small woman. “I’ll just wait for them to arrive then.”

“Is it true that you can’t be killed?” a man named Roger asked diffidently, absently rubbing his hand over his shaved head.

“So far, that seems to be true,” Calypso answered with a nod. “We survived a nuclear explosion last night while we were removing camera’s from satellites. I’m not sure what humans have that outclasses a nuclear bomb.”

“Too bad our clothes don’t survive as well,” Aria muttered with a sigh.

She didn’t realize that she had said it that loud. Several of the officers blinked at her, then seemed to struggle not to undress the two angels with their eyes.

“How hard is it to get into heaven?” Nancy asked hesitantly, her cheeks coloring as both angels turned to look at her with their inhuman eyes.

“If you don’t have wings of your own, you can usually take a jet or other aircraft,” Aria answered, keeping her face neutral.

“You can just fly to heaven-“ Nancy began with a puzzled expression but broke off as she saw Aria’s lips twitching. “Oh. It is real though, isn’t it?”

“Heaven just means skies in religious texts,” Aria pointed out with a shrug. “The skies are real. As far as the misogynistic bearded guy that has temper tantrums though, I’ll have to claim ignorance on such an entity. We do not serve a deity. We do serve a higher purpose, however. Calypso is a healer. She has a compulsion to help the sick. It’s one of her purposes. If you want to call this higher purpose we feel driving us a god, I suppose that word works as well as any other.”

“What is your purpose?” a man named Josh asked curiously. “Are you a healer too?”

“Hadn’t you guessed already?” Aria grinned at him as she glowed slightly. “My purpose is to vanquish evil, wherever I find it.”

“Wow, that’s badass,” he declared, his eyes impressed. “So, you’re an angel cop.”

“Bingo,” Aria laughed, brightening the room with love and merriment as she did so.

Three men pushed their way through the broken door a movement later.

“What the hell happened to the door?” the first one, Angelos, demanded in exasperation as he pushed his way past the wreckage.

“Chief’s gonna be pissed,” the flaxen haired man, David, declared ominously. “Heads are gonna roll.”

“Seriously, did the incredible hulk escape or something?” the last one, Dominic, asked in wonder. “How the hell did this door get so wrecked?”

Aria studied their auras. They were all slimy and tainted with malevolence so deep that it made Aria want to puke.

“Hello, Dominic, David, and Angelos,” Aria greeted them through gritted teeth as her core ignited. “You have not been good people. In fact, you have been downright evil. So evil that I have been sent to snuff your candles out. Goodbye.”

As she finished, her eyes blazed forth and blasted her energy beam into all three of them at once, vaporizing them instantly.

The men had noticed her right when she began talking. Their eyes had widened, and fear shot through them. They had grown more panicked as she spoke, one of them going so far as turning to run. It hadn’t done them any good.

“Now for the chief,” Aria spoke grimly. “It’s time to find out where he’s hiding.”

“How are you going to do that?” Josh asked curiously. “He didn’t even tell us where he’s going on vacation. He could be anywhere.”

“I need to smell something of his,” Aria explained, looking around the area. “Is that his office?”

“It’s locked,” Nancy warned her softly. “He keeps the key with him at all times. There isn’t a spare.”

“Sounds suspicious,” Aria declared, pushing through the solid wood door like it was paper. The deadbolt buckled as it was pushed against the metal door casing beyond its limits. “Let’s see if he has any leads to other pieces of shit hidden away in here.”

As soon as she entered the room, she noticed a horrible smell. It was like being in a reptile house, but far worse. She looked around the room, noticing a safe on a desk. “Why does the chief have a safe?”

“He said it’s for confidential documents,” Nancy answered from where she had entered behind Aria. “Which doesn’t make sense, because we have locking file cabinets for confidential documents.”

Aria flared brightly for a moment as she vaporized the safe door. There was a thick binder inside. She pulled it out and looked at the pages within.

“This looks like a ledger,” Aria observed as she studied the pages. “Payments received and services rendered. Between ten to twenty thousand for each entry.”

“Are there any names?” Nancy asked eagerly, her face hopeful.

“No, but there are phone numbers and addresses,” Aria responded, flipping through each page until they were all in her memory.”

Aria lifted the binder up and smelled it. She recoiled as the stench of something so foul it would have caused her to vomit if she still had a stomach. She grimaced as she threw the binder down. “Okay, we’re done here. It’s time to take care of the chief. I’ll see if I can get some answers out of him for who these phone numbers belong to before he dies.”

“Nancy, you really are a good person,” Calypso told the small woman softly. “There was nothing more you could have done with the powerful people you were up against. Your aura can’t lie, and I see a soul full of compassion and purity when I look at you.”

“Are you sure you can’t read my mind?” Nancy asked, her eyes wide.

“I said Aria cannot read your minds,” Calypso smiled faintly at the woman, tapping her own forehead. “I didn’t say that I can’t.”

All of the cops stared at Calypso, some of them in consternation. She blushed slightly and looked at Aria. “I think it’s time to go.”

“Thank you, for being good people,” Aria told the small crowd around them, her eyes sincere. “Goodbye.”

The two angels vanished from the room at speeds too fast for human eyes to register. Nancy blinked as the two angels vanished right in front of her eyes.

Chapter 8

“Whutch ya doin?” Clarice’s voice asked in a redneck drawl as they exited the police station at high speed.

Aria looked up to where Clarice had landed on top of an office building across the street from the police station. She flew up and landed next to Clarice, followed shortly after by Calypso.

“We were keeping a promise to Adelle,” Aria responded solemnly, her eyes filled with wrath. “Making sure these crooked cops never hurt another child.”

“Good,” Clarice smiled approvingly, patting Aria’s cheek. “I’m ready to kick ass and take names.”

“We’re looking for the chief,” Aria told her grimly. “I have his scent now. It’s the foulest thing I’ve ever smelled. I just need to go track him down.”

“We’ll just follow along behind then,” Clarice informed her lightly. “I want to talk to you about something on the way.”

Aria nodded, launching herself up into the air and shooting south. Clarice and Calypso followed on either side of her.

“I was thinking we could take Lexi back to the cabin with us,” Clarice suggested with a concerned look in her eyes. “She can’t go back to her worthless parents, and becoming a ward of the state would be a terrible life for her, especially after what she’s been through.”

Aria smiled affectionately at her sister, feeling a deep swelling of love for Clarice and her compassionate heart. “I think that would be a great idea.”

Aria suddenly came to a stop as her nose picked up the trail of the chief. She looked down at what looked like a dairy farm. There were large outbuildings and silos scattered across several thousand acres of land. Aria dropped down to a few hundred feet and began narrowing her search down. The scent was coming from one of the silos.

She landed in front of the door to a large silo and listened for any sign of occupants. She could hear voices faintly from somewhere inside. She looked at Clarice and Calypso.

“Someone is talking in there,” Aria commented with a frown. “It must either be extremely insulated or go really far down, because I can’t hear what they are saying.”

“It’s so wrong,” Calypso whispered, her eyes filled with revulsion.

“What are you hearing?” Aria asked, her voice thick with concern.

“They’re evil,” Calypso began to tremble, her eyes full of horror.

“Let’s go,” Clarice kicked the door in, sheering through thick bolts on the inside.

The smell was awful. Aria stopped herself from breathing as she pushed inside of the giant tin can. The door had been reinforced like a bank vault, but it hadn’t stood a chance against their angel strength. As they entered, the sound of alarms began to wail. The inside of the silo was almost completely empty. There was a shaft at one end that dropped down somewhere. Aria walked over to it and jumped down. She dropped for three hundred feet before she hit the top of an elevator lift. She tore the top hatch off of the elevator lift and tucked her wings against herself tightly before jumping down inside.

As soon as she landed white gas began shooting out of nozzles in the elevator. She ignored the poisonous gas and jabbed her hands between the doors, then pried them open to the sound of tortured metal. There was a large room outside of the elevator. It looked like a horror movie on steroids. Humans were connected to various exotic machines clearly meant to inflict pain. The smell of something vile slammed into her, triggering an immediate reaction in her core. She lit up like the sun, burning away all traces of darkness. There were several human shaped entities standing in front of one of the humans, collecting blood from the tortured wreck of a person as they tried to shriek past a gag that had been tied to their head. The entities had red, scaly skin and small nubs protruding from their heads. When they saw Aria, their reptilian eyes grew wide with sudden fear.

Before they could react further, she shot across the distance separating them and put her fist into the face of one of the entities. Instead of exploding like she had expected, it knocked the entity back into the wall fifty feet away. They are more durable than humans.

Switching gears, she grew brighter still and fired her light beam into the entity. As soon as the beam touched the entity it shrieked in agony and began to smoke. Within a few seconds, there was nothing left of what Aria decided was a demon.

Clarice had already started cooking the other three demons, her own body blazing with incandescent light. Aria quickly joined her beam with Clarice’s, vaporizing the remaining demons.

Moving at angel speed, she quickly began disconnecting the traumatized humans from the torture machines they were bound to. Calypso’s face was filled with a pained sorrow, but she put her horror aside and began singing. Her song used many of the powerful words she had heard during the biker’s resurrection. She was pulling from deep within herself as she sought to heal both body and mind of the ravaged humans.

Aria felt tears of rage as she was finally able to focus on the humans. There were way too many children in this house of horrors. She choked back the urge to let out a shriek of rage at the creatures responsible for such horrific acts. The demons. If angels were real, apparently their counterparts were real too.

“The world just got uglier,” Clarice noted next to Aria quietly. “Demons. The thought had crossed my mind when angels became a reality. I had hoped there wouldn’t be an equal and opposing balance to angels, but apparently the universe doesn’t work like that.”

Aria nodded, feeling a burning resolve in her core to excise the rotting cancer from the world. “Maybe humans are getting more help ending up in the depths of depravity than we gave them credit for. One of these demons was the police chief. I wonder how many more are slinking around in positions of power.”

“These were pretty weak,” Clarice observed critically, staring around the room in disgust. “We were able to vaporize them the same way we do everything else. I wonder if there are stronger demons out there, or if they are all this weak. I think we need to evolve more if we are going to be up against more powerful demons. It might be time for more angels too. It seems pretty clear that a lot of the horrors in our world are being orchestrated by agents of evil. Three angels is probably not going to be enough to handle a scourge of this magnitude.”

“Yeah,” Aria breathed her agreement. She watched as the humans gathered around Calypso, soaking in the warmth of her healing presence. There were almost forty of them, ranging in age from the single digits up to their twenties. The demons seemed to prefer the young.

“They were harvesting their blood,” Clarice growled darkly, studying the machines that the humans had been connected to. “It looks like a chemistry lab. They were harvesting their blood, but they clearly wanted them in a state of terror when they did it.”

“Could it be the adrenaline in the blood that they are after?” Aria scowled at the machines. “I think there must be something more than adrenaline they are getting here.”

“We need to figure out how to get everyone out of here,” Clarice declared firmly. “Let’s get them to the surface. We can figure out what’s next after that.”

Aria nodded fervently, her eyes filled with loathing as she looked at the demonic lab. “We’ll probably need to fly them up one at a time.”

Clarice walked over to where Calypso was trying to maintain a compassionate presence, though Aria could see it was a struggle. She looked like she wanted to break down and cry as she witnessed the horrors the humans had suffered.

“Let’s start flying everyone up,” Clarice instructed Calypso, watching the humans with a pitying gaze. “I’ll stay here at the bottom and Aria can wait at the top while you fly them up. That way one of us will always be with them.”

Calypso nodded, her eyes shining silvery with unshed tears. Clarice pulled her into a comforting embrace and Aria felt the warmth and strength Clarice was sharing with the distraught angel. Calypso held onto Clarice tightly and squeezed her eyes shut. She stood there for several more seconds before releasing Clarice with a grateful smile.

Aria went into the elevator and blasted the roof off with a beam of light, then flew up to the top of the shaft. A moment later, Calypso joined her, depositing a child into Aria’s care before jumping back down the shaft. Aria projected love and comfort around her as more children were brought up to the surface. They huddled around her, trying to increase their proximity to the benevolent angels.

Clarice joined Calypso on her last flight up from the bunker. The children were slowly coming back to life as the open skies and sunlight reinforced the fact that their ordeal was over. Aria pulled Calypso into another comforting embrace and was joined by Clarice. They rested their foreheads together, drawing comfort as their meridians began exchanging energy. Aria felt a tear land on her hand as Calypso finally let go of her restraint. A small stream of quicksilver tears fell down onto Aria and Clarice. Each time a tear landed there was a small pop of energy as it interacted with the energy of the other two angels. Aria felt her own cheeks wet with tears as she shuddered from the horror of what they had witnessed.

There was a golden glow that lit up a sphere around them as the tears merged. Aria gasped as her body was suddenly charged with energy beyond anything she had ever felt. She felt the other two angels stiffen as they were also electrified with intense energy. The golden glow only lasted for moments, but it felt like hours. When it diminished and faded away she felt different. She was aware of the world around her like never before. She could sense the energy coursing through the ground beneath their feet like it was a river of molten light. Her vision was suddenly bombarded with information as she stared around them.

“Are those radio waves I’m seeing?” Clarice asked in wonder.

“I have no idea,” Aria whispered in awe. It was beautiful, seeing the world of energy superimposed on to the world she had known all of her life. A lattice of energy covered the skies with billions of lines.

“I understand now,” Calypso breathed in a voice filled with relief. “This is where physical meets spiritual. I can sense the planet’s aura. It’s sick. Very sick.”

Aria stared in sudden understanding. The lines were the meridians of the planet, just like every living thing had meridians. The planet was a living entity too.

Calypso released the two of them and spread her wings wide open. She closed her eyes and raised her arms high into the air, then spoke a word of power. The air in front of them warped and shimmered, and then a hole appeared. She gasped in amazement as the cabin appeared on the other side of the hole in the air.

“Calypso, did you just make a gateway?” Clarice exclaimed excitedly, her violet eyes wide with astonishment.

“Yes,” Calypso nodded her confirmation. “I think my evolution may have been influenced by my need to help these people. I no longer trust the government to help reunite them with their families, assuming their families weren’t responsible for their current predicament. It’s clear that there are demons in high places.”

“Yeah, and now I know what they smell like,” Aria responded with a grimace at the memory. “So foul. Now I’ll recognize them though.”

They urged the large group of children to go through the gateway. There was a brief sense of vertigo when she went through, but it was over almost immediately. As soon as they arrived at the cabin, Clarice left them to go pick up Lexi from Tamra’s house.

“We are going to have to figure out sleeping arrangements for forty extra people,” Aria murmured as the watched the group of children. Some of them were looking around with interest, but most of them were staring at her and Calypso in fascination.

“Well, this is unexpected,” Aria’s mother commented as she exited the cabin in front of them. She was staring at the large group of children curiously. “I get the feeling that we are going to need more rooms.”

Aria walked over to her mother and pulled her out of earshot from the children. “We just rescued them from some demons that were torturing them and harvesting their blood,” Aria informed her mother gravely. “Calypso healed them, but I’m not sure how much mental trauma they may still have. Now that we know there are demons in higher places, we don’t dare hand them over to the state.”

“When you say demons, you aren’t referring to humans that act like demons, are you?” her mother asked, her eyes intent.

“No,” Aria confirmed bleakly. “I’m referring to actual demonic entities with scales and horns.”

“I was starting to wonder if there was going to be a counterbalance to angels,” her mother muttered with a frown. “We better start looking for somewhere to put the children.”

“I’ll see if Calypso can make a gateway to a store so that I can purchase some mats and sleeping bags for them to sleep on,” Aria told her mother, eyeing the children speculatively. “I think we can put the older kids in the bedrooms. There are only six over the age of eighteen. That leaves us with thirty two mats and sleeping bags to find. This place is turning into a refugee camp.”

“It’s a good thing it is so large,” her mother noted, looking at the large cabin appreciatively.

“Once everyone is settled in, we’ll start finding parents,” Aria promised, making her way over to Calypso again.

Calypso was singing softly to the children, creating a warm, welcoming ambience. They stood watching her in fascination, their eyes captivated as her beautiful voice soothed their souls.

“Do you think you could make a gateway to a sporting goods store where I could get some sleeping mats and bags?” Aria asked tentatively, not wanting to interrupt her soothing song.

Calypso nodded, raising her wings and arms into the air. She spoke that same word of power that she had the first time, and a moment later a gateway shimmered into being, opening in the backrooms of a sporting goods store. An employee gasped when she saw the portal open up in her break room, her eyes growing wide in astonishment. Aria quickly stepped through and addressed the young woman.

“Hello, Amanda,” Aria spoke in a soothing tone. “My name is Aria. I have a lot of children who have been treated badly that I need to get sleeping mats and sleeping bags for. Do you think you could help me get some?”

Amanda goggled at her. Her mouth moved but no sound came out. Aria suppressed a sigh and walked up to the girl and put her hands on the girl’s shoulders, filling her with calm and love. Amanda gasped as the emotion flooded her system. After a moment she calmed down and finally found her voice.

“You’re the angel that vaporized those cops!” Amanda choked out in a half gasp half yell.

“Yes, the very same,” Aria agreed, her eyes growing flinty. “Such will be the fate of anyone I find harming children. Will you help me with the bedding?”

Amanda jumped to her feet, nodding vigorously. “Yeah, of course! I’d love to help you. Let me show you where they are.”

She led Aria out into the store. There was a steady stream of gasps and exclamations as she passed other people in the store. Phones immediately came out to record as an angel walked in their midst.

People followed her and Amanda around the store while trying to appear casual. Amanda finally led her to the location where the bed rolls were stocked. Aria didn’t really want to be seen on YouTube lugging dozens of bed mats and sleeping bags around a store, so she stepped into hyper speed, emptying the shelves in a few seconds as she ran back and forth between the gateway and the shelves. All that the curious bystanders could see was a blur as the shelves suddenly began emptying like magic. When she finished, she returned to thank the helpful employee, pulling her into a hug and handing her some money.

The woman gasped as the force of Aria’s love and appreciation hit her like a freight train of feathers. “Thank you, Amanda.”

Then she was gone, vanishing at speeds too fast for the human eye to track. Amanda hurriedly went back into the break room, sighing in disappointment when she saw the lack of a magical portal.

XXXXX

Clarice dropped out of the sky like a lightning bolt, landing in front of Tamra’s house. It was well into the afternoon. Clarice walked up to the front door and knocked.

“That’s probably them right now,” she heard Tamra speak reassuringly.

“What if it’s one of those people again?” Lexi’s voice was full of anxiety.

“Then they’re going to have a bad day,” Tamra responded with a grim chuckle. “I can be pretty mean when I want to be. You can stay here if you want, until I go let them in.”

“It’s Clarice!” Clarice called out loud enough for them to hear her.

She heard the sound of running feet. A moment later the door was jerked open, and Lexi ran into her arms, shaking with relief. Clarice projected loving reassurance as she held the young woman tightly. Lexi soaked up the powerful emotions like a desert flower in monsoon season.

“Thank you so much for coming back,” Lexi sobbed out in a voice choked with emotion. “I thought I would never see you again.”

“Shhh,” Clarice consoled her, gently stroking her hair as she held her tight. “We are angels. We would never leave you. We will always be there for you, whenever you need us.”

Tamra appeared at the front door, smiling sadly at Clarice. She smiled back at Tamra with a confident, indomitable smile. Things were going to change in this world. They were going to change a lot.

Tamra stared at Clarice, feeling the sheer determination pouring out of the angel. There was a sudden hope in her eyes as she realized that large changes were on the horizon.

“Thank you so much, Tamra,” Clarice spoke softly, her eyes grateful. “You are truly a wonderful person.”

“Thank you,” Tamra smiled warmly, shaking her head slowly. “You saved my niece and these other children. I can’t thank you enough. We still haven’t fitted the three of you for clothing yet. I know you all have your hands full right now. Come back any time and we’ll get you measured, and some new clothes tailored for you.”

Clarice suddenly grinned mischievously. “We’ll definitely be back. Aria wasn’t a fan of the bra club.”

Tamra chuckled, clearly remembering the two blushing angels.

“See you soon, Tamra,” Clarice said warmly, slowly rising into the air as she held the clinging Lexi.

Lexi regained her composure quickly as the overpowering waves of comfort and love pushed her anxiety and fear aside. She watched the ground below them in wonder as they flew at speeds well beyond the sound barrier without any wind. With Clarice’s emotional reassurance filling her to the core, she had no fear as she stared down at the earth far below them. They flew through clouds and around airplanes on their swift journey back to the cabin. When she landed, she found Aria zooming in and out of a gateway at hyper speed with mats and sleeping bags. By the time she landed with Lexi, Aria was finished with her supply chain run. Calypso closed the gateway and turned to face Clarice and her passenger.

“Hello, Lexi,” Calypso spoke in her rich, vibrant voice that caressed the spine. “I’m so sorry we left you alone. We ran into trouble and took longer than we expected.”

“It’s okay,” Lexi whispered shyly, staring down at the ground.

Calypso lifted Lexi’s chin gently with her fingers until she was looking into Calypso’s swirling orbs. “You are not a burden to us in any way. We are angels. Our whole purpose is to serve. Your happiness is more important to us that you can imagine.”

Lexi seemed to be captivated by Calypso’s swirling eyes, unable to look away. After a minute of staring into the angel’s beautiful eyes, Calypso stepped forward and pulled her into a loving embrace. Lexi closed her eyes and smiled contentedly, her face finally relaxing as she realized she was safe and would not be left alone.

“I want to introduce you to some other kids we found,” Calypso told the young woman as she pulled back from their embrace. “They’re a little fragile as well due to some trauma they’ve experienced. They’ll be staying the night here until we can start looking for their parents tomorrow.”

Lexi finally noticed that there were dozens of kids around her, most of them staring in awe at the angels in their midst. One of the girls in her late teens walked over to where Lexi stood. She smiled at Lexi, her dark eyes full of excitement.

“Hi, my name is Amber,” the girl introduced herself, stepping forward to embrace Lexi. “Can you believe we were saved by real life angels?”

Lexi shivered as the realization hit her finally. Clarice watched as her eyes finally made the connection that they weren’t just some kind of super hero or x-men, but actual angels.

“I’m Lexi,” Lexi told Amber shyly.

Clarice watched Lexi closely. She seemed to have some serious self-esteem issues that had survived Calypso’s healing. They would need to handle her carefully until she was able to put the trauma of the past few years behind her.

“I see you’ve already started the party without me,” her uncle noted with a chuckle, his deep voice rumbling.

Lexi flinched at the sound of his voice, pulling back from Amber with fear in her eyes.

Calypso pulled her back into a comforting hug. “This is Aria and Clarice’s uncle,” she told Lexi calmly. “He owns this cabin and has been helping us tremendously. He’s a good man and someone you can trust one hundred percent. He’s already put his life on the line many times to keep us safe.”

Lexi slowly relaxed again in Calypso’s arms, watching Devon warily. His kind eyes stared back at her. She took a deep, shuddering breath. “I’m sorry.”

“No need to apologize,” he told her gently. “I don’t know your story, but I know what horrible things humans can do to each other. I’m sorry for whatever you have gone through to make you feel afraid of a man’s voice.”

She closed her eyes and took another deep breath. “I’m Lexi,” she said as she exhaled slowly. “I know I’m a wreck. I’m sorry if I offend you with my behavior in any way.”

“I’m Devon,” he greeted her with another smile. “And I’m pretty much impossible to offend, so you’re safe there.”

“Did the demons hurt you too?” a young girl around eight years old asked sympathetically.

“Demons?” Lexi repeated the word and creasing her brows.

“When we rescued these children, they were being tormented by actual demons,” Calypso informed Lexi quietly. “It was a seen of unimaginable horror. I’ve removed most of their memories of their time in captivity. Some things are too horrific for the mind to recover from.”

Devon’s eyebrows shot up at mention of demons. He studied Calypso searchingly while she held Lexi.

“We were hunting a police chief who had corrupted most of the police force and turned them into kidnappers,” Calypso told him quietly, her eyes uneasy. “Aria killed the cops who were involved in the abductions. The chief wasn’t there, so we used his scent to track him down. We found him at an old dairy farm in a silo several hundred feet beneath the ground. He was a demon, scales, horns, reptilian eyes and all. There were several other demons there too. They were doing what demons do in folklore. Aria and Clarice vaporized them, and we brought the survivors back here.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever smelled anything so foul,” Aria declared with a disgusted look. “It will certainly make finding them easy.”

“Actual demons,” Devon muttered, frowning at the ground as he absently picked at an ear. “So, you aren’t evenly matched, apparently. That’s good to know.”

“They were a lot more durable than humans,” Aria informed him grimly. “I punched the first one in the face heard enough to cave its skull in, but it just knocked it back into a wall. Luckily, they had no defense against angel fire.”

“Angel fire?” he repeated questioningly.

“I just made it up,” Aria admitted with a grin. “That’s what I’m calling the beam of light we can shoot out of our eyes. It vaporizes anything it comes into contact with.”

“I think they were weak demons,” Clarice commented, her eyes narrow. “I have a feeling there are going to be more powerful adversaries out there. We need to get stronger.”

“Agreed,” Aria nodded firmly. “You were right when you said we need more angels, Clarice. We aren’t going to be enough if there are significantly more demons who could also be more powerful. If our angel fire works on them, it’s altogether possible that they will have something that can kill us.”

Their mother stared at them silently for a moment. Calypso’s eyes widened a moment before their mother spoke. “I dedicate my life to vanquishing evil.”

Aria and Clarice gasped at the suddenness of their mother’s proclamation. They both felt the angel seed on her neck spread out, building a lattice of new meridians that fused to her mortal body. She began to glow brightly as her insides were burned away in holy fire. It ended with a blinding light flashing out of her eyes. When the light dimmed, violet eyes stared back at them from a face as youthful as their own.

“Mom!” Clarice gasped in shock. “Are you sure you wanted to do this? Wasn’t this a little sudden?”

“If there are demons threatening my babies’ lives, this is the best form for me to protect you in,” their mother said with a radiant smile. She looked around in awe as she experienced the powerful emotional and physical sensations of being an angel. “I feel wonderful.”

Aria pulled her mother into a tight embrace, tears of love flowing down her cheeks. “Oh Mom, I’m so glad you are with us now.”

Clarice joined the hug, her meridians arcing into the other two angels and forming a super lattice of holy energy. “Mom, you really are the best! I’m so glad you chose to become an angel.”

“I feel like I should build a church or temple,” Devon joked, his eyes twinkling as he gazed at them fondly. “One big happy family of angels.”

“What about you, Devon?” their mother asked with a small smile. “You still want to start a family before making a decision?”

He nodded with a wistful smile. “I missed out on too much life while contracting to the agency. I want to experience more life before I make the choice to become immortal.”

“What’s with the light show?” their father asked as he walked out to join them.

“I’m sorry dear,” their mother apologized gently as he got close enough to see her clearly. “I need to be able to protect our daughters, and this is the best way. I won’t risk losing them ever again.”

He was staring at his wife in stupefied shock, his mouth gaping and his eyes wide. “Emily? Is that really you?”

“Close your mouth, dear, or you’re going to catch flies,” their mother instructed him dryly.

He blinked, then laughed as shook his head. “Yep, that’s you alright.”

“I’m going to start getting the children situated,” Devon announced, looking at the large pile of bedding Aria had piled up on the front lawn. “Let’s get them all settled in so that they can rest.”

Clarice reluctantly released her mother as Aria did the same. As soon as they did, Calypso took their place, giving their mother a quick embrace.

“Emily, I can’t tell you how happy I am that you have joined us,” Calypso beamed at her.

“Thank you, Calypso,” their mother replied, pulling Calypso in tightly. “I should have done this earlier. I can’t believe how wonderful I feel.”

Calypso released her with a dazzling smile, then turned to Devon. “Let me get those for you.”

In a blur of motion all of the bedding vanished as Calypso ran in and out of the cabin with armloads of bedding at angel speed.

“I was going to say I can get it,” Devon said mildly. “But I won’t complain.”

Clarice laughed, shaking her head fondly. “Okay, kiddos, let’s show you around the house where you’ll be sleeping.”

“I’ll bet they’re hungry too,” their mother noted keenly. “I’ll get some food started right away.”

Before she could go, her husband pulled her into an embrace of his own. “Sorry, dear, I just wanted to hug this hotty before my wife comes back.”

She laughed, and it was like the sun coming up after a dark night, brightening the mood all around her. She pulled him down for a kiss that lasted long enough to make some of the children start giggling. Part way through the kiss, she lit up like an incandescent bulb. When she finally released him, her eyes had sharpened and had patterns etched around the iris.

“Wow, it didn’t take you long to evolve,” Clarice smirked at them with a mischievous light in her violet eyes. “I can’t wait to see what you look like tomorrow morning.”

Her mother winked at her, then released their father, her expression becoming business-like. “Okay, I’m going to get some food going for the kiddos.”

“I’m hungry,” one of the children chimed in, right on queue.

“Me too,” several more voices chorused.

“I’ll bet you are,” their mother laughed, her face filled with affection. “Let’s go see what we have for you.”

Clarice beckoned Lexi to follow her into the house. She had been watching their parents with a wistful look in her eyes.

“I really lucked out,” Clarice told her with a warm smile at her parents. “I wish you could have had parents like mine.”

“That would have been wonderful,” Lexi murmured, a slight smile on her face. “It’s wonderful to see the love they have for each other, and for you.”

“Well, now you’re included in that love,” Clarice informed her firmly. “You’re my new sister, and I’ll take the world apart to prevent anyone from hurting you ever again.”

Lexi sniffled quietly and Clarice reached out to hold her hand reassuringly.

“Do you mind if I ask a question?” Lexi asked hesitantly.

“You mean another question,” Clarice responded with a playful grin. “Ask as many questions as you like, Lexi.”

“You used to be human, like me, didn’t you?” Lexi inquired with a troubled frown.

“Yes, two days ago in fact,” Clarice admitted with a wry smile.

“Really?” Lexi stared at her in amazement as they entered the house.

“Really,” Clarice confirmed, squeezing her hand.

“I thought angels were from heaven or something,” Lexi looked at her with a puzzled crease to her brow. “How did you become angels?”

“Calypso is the first angel,” Clarice answered as she guided her up the stairs to the third floor. She told Lexi all about their second meeting with Calypso, including how ignorant Calypso was of the fact that she even was an angel. When she mentioned the angel tears, Lexi stopped her.

“What could make an angel cry?” she asked with a frown. “You seem so powerful and untouchable.”

“Love is what made her cry,” Clarice smiled fondly as she quickly relived the memory in her head. “Calypso had spent over a hundred years caring for sick children. She never had anyone to care for her or show her the same compassion that she showed to others. When Aria and I showed her how much we cared for her, and how much we wanted to make her happy, she was overwhelmed with joy. She had never been pampered before or had any kind of intimacy. She is such an amazing person, but she had never become close enough to anyone to recognize how wonderful she was. When her angel tears landed on each of us, we discovered that certain phrases trigger the transformation. We call the tears angel seeds.”

“Could I become an angel?” Lexi asked, her eyes filled with hope.

“If you want to, yes,” Clarice nodded slowly. “I’ll need to discuss it with Calypso, Aria, and my mom, but I would imagine the option will be there when you are ready for it.”

“Really?” Lexi gasped in excitement. “I would be like you, and be able to fight against evil?”

“Depending on whether you want to be a healing angel or a battle angel,” Clarice responded with a frown. “We still don’t know what phrase triggers someone to become a healer though. We only know the phrase for battle angels.”

“I definitely want to be a battle angel,” Lexi declared, her eyes fierce. “I want to protect other people from evil people the way you did for me.”

“How old are you, Lexi?” Clarice inquired, studying her meridians. She was sure there had to be a way to accurately identify a person’s age by observing their energy matrices.

“What’s the date?” Lexi asked, her face losing some of its luster. Clarice felt a pang of sadness as she thought about how time would have become meaningless for the imprisoned young woman.

“It’s April 23, 2026,” Clarice responded gently, squeezing her hand reassuringly. They entered one of the bedrooms with a queen bed as they spoke.

“Wow, really?” Lexi stared at her in surprise. “It feels like so much longer. Time didn’t seem to move at all in that horrible place. I turn eighteen tomorrow.”

“What!” Clarice exclaimed, staring at her excitedly. “Tomorrow is your birthday?”

“Yeah,” Lexi shrugged, smiling shyly. “It’s not a big deal.”

“Like hell it’s not a big deal!” Clarice declared, her face a mask of mock severity. “You’re going to be a grownup tomorrow! It’s a rite of passage that demands a party that you’ll never forget.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Lexi protested, her fair complexion burning like a sunset. “You have way more important things to deal with than a silly birthday par-”

“Did you hear something?” Clarice cut her off suddenly, her face serious.

Lexi froze, her eyes suddenly wary. “What was it?”

“It was the sound of you getting a party whether you like it or not!” Clarice crowed with a triumphant smile. “Though it might be the day after tomorrow, since we have all of these kids to take home tomorrow.”

Lexi let out a relieved breath as she realized there was no danger, then she looked at Clarice with outrage written on her face. Clarice smirked back at her, one eyebrow raised expectantly. Lexi spluttered for several seconds before letting out a helpless laugh, leaning into Clarice as she giggled.

“Now we have to get serious for a minute, okay?” Clarice asked her gravely, all traces of levity gone from her angelic face.

“Okay…” Lexi responded slowly, reigning in her laughter. “What?”

“What kind of stuff do you like?” Clarice asked, maintaining her stoic expression. “What kind of music do you like? What’s your favorite food?”

Lexi stared at her blankly for a minute, then started laughing, swatting at her arm playfully. “You are too much.”

“Too much awesomeness,” Clarice grinned roguishly. “I actually have a PhD in awesomeness, so you can call me Dr. Clarice, if you like.”

Lexi collapsed back onto the bed giggling madly as years of living without any humor in her life finally burst through like a damn. She lay giggling for a minute before looking up at Clarice, who was making a studios expression with her chin on her fist, which sent her into another fit of giggles. Every time she started getting her mirth under control she would look up and see the laughter in Clarice’s eyes and fall apart again. It eventually drew the attention of a few of the younger kids. They came into the room with curious smiles on their faces, looking for the reason for so much merriment.

“What’s so funny?” a twelve year old boy asked curiously.

“I don’t know,” Clarice declared, her face full of feigned innocence. “She just keeps laughing every time she looks at me. Is there something on my face?”

Lexi had just started to pull herself together when Clarice spoke. She fell back again, laughing until she had tears leaking out of her eyes.

“I don’t see anything on your face?” the boy told her critically. Her laughter was contagious and some of the other younger kids were laughing too, not knowing why. “Seriously, what’s so funny?”

“I have a PhD in awesomeness, not comedy,” Clarice defended herself with her hands held up in the air. “I have no idea what’s so funny.”

“How can you have a PhD in awesomeness?” the boy asked with a puzzled expression. This set off a new round of giggles from Lexi, which cascaded down to the other four girls in the room.

“Are you familiar with the term ‘honorary doctorate’?” Clarice asked him, trying to keep her lips from quivering.

“No, what is it?” the boy asked, his puzzled brow deepening.

“Normally, you have to go through a lot of academic study to get a doctorate degree in college,” Clarice explained, glancing at Lexi as she spoke. The young woman was holding her sides as she took deep breaths to calm herself. “Well, sometimes somebody does something so groundbreaking or important that a university will give them an honorary doctorate in recognition for their achievement. In my case, I am so freaking awesome that I was given an honorary doctorate for awesomeness. So, you can either call me Dr. Clarice, or Dr. Awesome; your pick.”

She hadn’t even finished speaking before Lexi was on her back again, laughing hysterically.

“Stop!” she gasped through mirthful tears. “My sides are killing me!”

“Okay, fine,” Clarice sighed wearily. “I’ll stop being awesome.”

The boy was grinning as he started getting into the spirit of the room’s merriment. “So, I should have an honorary doctorate in coolness because I’m so cool, right?

“You’ve got it figured out,” Clarice held her hand out for a high-five.

He slapped her hand, grinning widely.

“Dinner’s ready!” her mother’s voice called from the second floor.

There was an immediate stampede out of the room as all of the younger children ran for the veranda.

“I really needed that,” Lexi told her with a wan smile as she laid back in the bed with her head turned to the side to watch Clarice.

“I know you did,” Clarice replied gently. “And there will be plenty more where that came from in the years to come.”

“Well done, Clarice, you freaking rock,” she heard Aria say from down in the library. She smiled affectionately as she replied.

“You’re damn right I do,” Clarice agreed easily.

“You do what?” Lexi asked, her eyes perplexed.

“I was talking to Aria,” she explained with a faint smile. “Angels have ridiculously powerful senses. We can hear each other talking from the opposite corners of the house.”

“She can hear everything we’ve talked about?” Lexi asked in surprise, looking down at the floor and then out the door.

“I sure can, and we are totally having a party whether she likes it or not,” Aria’s humorous voice answered.

“She says yes, and that we are totally have a party whether you like it or not,” Clarice relayed with a grin.

“Wow!” Lexi breathed, impressed. “You really are like super heroes.”

“Think superman without the kryptonite,” Clarice said with a wide grin. “We are pretty much indestructible, have insane strength, super senses, we weigh practically nothing, we don’t need to breathe, we can fly, and shoot laser beams out of our eyes. Oh yeah, and in Calypso’s case she can heal people, bring them back from the dead, and make gateways to anywhere on earth. Maybe other worlds too, we haven’t checked.”

“You don’t need to breathe?” Lexi stared at her disbelievingly. “You could go into outer space? Or into the oceans?”

“Yep, we’ve already been to space,” Clarice said nonchalantly. “We were destroying the cameras on all of the satellites so that the government couldn’t track us anymore. They were getting annoying.”

Lexi stared at her in awe as she realized how powerful they really were. After a moment of staring, she creased her brows in puzzlement. “What do you mean that you weigh practically nothing? With those wings you must weigh more than me.”

“Come pick me up,” Clarice instructed her with a grin. “You’ll see.”

Lexi squinted at her, no doubt wondering if it was a prank. She got off of the bed and walked up to Clarice, she hesitantly reached for her armpits, but Clarice batted her hands away.

“Just lift from the waist, otherwise I’ll be too ticklish,” Clarice warned her with a wink.

Lexi dubiously wrapped her hands around Clarice’s narrow waist, gasping at just how narrow it was under the shirt. She set her feet and lifted. She nearly lost her when Clarice went upward with almost no resistance.

“Holy crap!” Lexi gasped as she held Clarice up above her with no apparent effort. “Doesn’t this violate some sciencey rules or something?”

“I’m sure pretty much everything we do violates the natural laws,” Clarice shrugged, looking down on Lexi from where she was held up high. “But that just means humans aren’t as smart as they think they are. What they think of as laws are more like guidelines for angels.”

“Do you know how bad I want to be an angel now?” Lexi breathed in wonder as she spun around in a circle while holding Clarice up in the air.

Clarice let out a startled laugh as she was twirled. “Yeah, I could definitely guess. Aria, Calypso, Mom, what do you think?”

“I’m one hundred percent behind you,” their mother replied immediately.

“We need more angels,” Aria noted thoughtfully. “She doesn’t have family to worry about. I think I’m onboard with it.”

“Yes, definitely,” Calypso replied with a smile in her voice.

“Okay, I guess you get to be an angel,” Clarice told her through a wide smile.

“Really? Really?” Lexi exclaimed, bouncing on her toes. “Oh my god, I’m so excited! When can we do it? Can we do it now? Please now!”

Clarice heard the other angels laughing as she smiled at Lexi. “Before we do it, I need to warn you about a few things you won’t be able to do anymore, once you’re no longer human. First, we don’t eat or sleep. How attached to food and sleep are you?”

“I hate sleeping,” Lexi shuddered, her eyes haunted. “I just have constant nightmares. I haven’t had decent food in so long that I could care less about food.”

“Okay, one more consideration,” Clarice told her gravely. “We can’t die, that we know of. We’ve had pretty big explosions go off right next to us and haven’t gotten a scratch. We don’t age. Are you okay with the idea of living eternally, with no way to die even if you want to?”

Lexi paused, her brows drawing together as she thought about it. “What happens after human’s die? Are we just reborn or something?”

“We have no idea,” Clarice shrugged with a wry smile. “We know that we have spirits, but we don’t know what happens to them after we die.”

“Well, it sounds like we would just live forever anyway, if we have spirits,” Lexi reasoned with a frown. “Whether we get reincarnated or move on to something else, our spirits probably live forever too, so I might as well live forever in a body I like.”

“That’s a pretty good point,” her mother commented approvingly.

“Good point, Lexi,” Clarice congratulated her with a smile. “We’re also pretty sure that angels can’t have children. Are you okay with that?”

“I will never let a man stick anything in me ever again,” Lexi declared vehemently.

“I kind of thought that would be your response, but I had to ask,” Clarice nodded her understanding. “Okay, that’s all of the warnings. Oh, one more thing. All of your insides disappear, like your organs. They get replaced by some kind of spiritual energy matrix.”

“I won’t ever have to go to the bathroom again?” Lexi demanded, her eyes eager.

“Correct,” Clarice confirmed with a nod. “No more number one, two, or three.”

“I’m so in,” Lexi declared with a brilliant smile. “What do we do now?”

“Now,” Clarice smiled at the young woman. “We have to make you an angel. Come here.”

She embraced the young woman. She thought of all of the horrors they had witnessed that day, and all of the horrors yet to come. Then she thought of having another sister to fight them with. Another member of her family. She felt her eyes grow damp as she hugged Lexi tightly. “I’m going to love having you as a sister,” she whispered as a tear fell down onto Lexi’s neck.

Clarice stepped back to give Lexi room as her neck began to glow for a moment before fading away again. The circles under her eyes and the anxiety that had left its mark on her face faded away as the angel seed prepared her body for transformation.

“Now say that you want to vanquish evil,” Clarice instructed softly.

“I will vanquish evil, wherever I find it!” Lexi shouted, her voice filled with conviction.

Her neck began glowing, then the rest of her body lit up brightly as well. Clarice watched the process in fascination, wondering what the other classes of angel could be. She grinned as Lexi’s eyes lit up like high beams, then dimmed. She opened her violet eyes to stare at Clarice in wonder, a smile growing on her face.

“I can’t believe how good I feel!” She exclaimed excitedly, staring at Clarice in awe. She flew across the six feet between them in a fraction of a millisecond, embracing Clarice tightly.

“THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU,” she cried over and over, her emotions filled with overwhelming gratitude.

“It was truly my pleasure,” Clarice whispered, enjoying the crossflow of their meridians. A moment later Aria and Calypso were with her, wrapping their arms around the two of them.

“Welcome to the family, Lexi,” Aria told the newest angel warmly.

“Welcome, Lexi,” Calypso echoed, her face bright with happiness.

Chapter 9

“Now that we have a fifth angel, I feel like we might be able to split some of our responsibilities up,” Clarice spoke quietly from where she stood in the library, surrounded by sleeping children. It was only a few hours until dawn.

“We have stretched ourselves a little thin,” Aria agreed from where she was standing in the large living room, also surrounded by sleeping children.

“What did you have in mind?” their mother asked quietly. She was in bed with her sleeping husband.

“After discovering that there are actual demons running around, it’s hard not to make the connection that these shadow agencies are either controlled by, or heavily infiltrated by these demonic entities,” Clarice spoke in a contemplative tone. “They are probably the reason this world has so much wrong with it. If we want to fix it, we have to start with them. There are five of us now, which probably still leaves us extremely outmatched unless all demons are as weak as the last ones. We need to be able to do a lot more scouting to figure out just how pervasive the demonic presence has become. We know they probably have some advanced weaponry that we have yet to see, so we don’t know if we will remain invulnerable. Certainly, our mortal family and friends will not be invulnerable.”

“We also have to get as many of these kids back to their parents as fast as possible,” Aria added with a sigh. “I think we are going to have to explain to the parents what really happened. I don’t think they’ll have trouble believing us, considering who we are.”

“We may want to look for a secondary base of operations as well,” their mother commented. She was barely speaking aloud at all as she lay next to her husband, but they could easily hear her, thanks to their absurd levels of auditory response. “We need both a fallback location in case something happens here, and a larger place to house more people in the event of another refugee crisis like we have tonight.”

“Yeah, it’s kind of crowded,” Clarice noted dryly as she stared at the sleeping bodies all around her.

“Obviously, those of us that can fly should handle the scouting for now,” Aria mused softly. “But once the rest of you have evolved more we can split those tasks up so that we all get experience in different arenas.’

“How do we evolve?” Lexi asked curiously from where she stood on the widows walk, keeping an eye on the night sky and surrounding area.

There was a very pregnant pause as Aria and Clarice tried to think of a way to explain the cause of their evolution without sounding like deviants. They were rescued by their mother.

“Angels thrive on expressions of love,” their mother told the newest angel with a smile in her voice that Clarice just knew was a smirk. “When an angel experiences a new level of love, sometimes through intimacy and other times through shared experience, they evolve.”

“For instance, giving Calypso a shoulder massage triggered her first evolution,” Clarice explained, and there was definitely a smirk in her voice. “But she didn’t really take off until Aria smooched her.”

“It was not a smooch!” Aria hissed vehemently.

“My bad,” Clarice whispered contritely. “Let me rephrase that. When Aria snogged Calypso.”

Aria felt her face heat up as her mother began to laugh quietly. “Snog is an even worse word than smooch!” Aria hissed in exasperation. “Can’t you just say I kissed her?”

“I agree with Aria,” Calypso interrupted from where she stood outside of the guest rooms the older kids were sleeping in. “Snog is even worse than smooch.”

“So, kissing made you evolve?” Lexi’s voice was hesitant.

“One of the things,” Calypso answered quietly. “Three of us hugging triggered an evolution too. Something about the energy of three angels mixing seems to cause an evolution. That’s why your eyes changed so quickly after your transformation.”

“How long did it take you to get wings?” Lexi asked eagerly. “If you’ve only been angels for two days, it must have been pretty quick.”

There was the sound of quiet rustling as Clarice moved up to the widows walk at angel speed. Lexi gasped when Clarice appeared in front of her suddenly.

“I don’t have my massage table, unfortunately,” Clarice murmured dryly. “It got blown up in our apartment. Since you’re an angel though, you can just lay down on your belly without getting uncomfortable like a human would. Off to the bench with you.”

Lexi smiled nervously and laid down on the large stone bench next to the railing. Clarice knelt down and went to work, digging her fingers into muscles at just the right amount of pressure.

Lexi let out a small groan of contentment as Clarice worked her back, shoulders, and neck. Dawn was just beginning to stain the Eastern horizon when Lexi suddenly gasped. She began glowing briefly. When the glow vanished, she stood up with a wondering smile.

“I feel so light now,” she whispered excitedly.

“Let’s see your back,” Clarice reached out and felt her back near her shoulder blades and felt the ridges where her wings would appear. “Looks like you’ll have wings pretty soon.”

“We still need to get fitted at Tamra’s so that we have more than one set of clothes that will work with angel wings,” Clarice remembered as she felt Lexi’s back. “Maybe you and I can go over once it’s morning on that side of the continent and get measured. That way, you’ll have some clothes ready when your wings appear.”

“What did you three do when your wings appeared?” Lexi asked curiously.

“We showed up at Tamra’s in bras,” Clarice told her with a grin. “I was totally okay rocking the bra look, but Calypso and Aria wanted actual clothes.”

Lexi laughed as she looked at Clarice, clearly imagining her in a bra. “That would definitely be awkward.”

“We’re angels,” Clarice shrugged with a confident smile. “We literally have perfect bodies. We don’t really have anything to feel self-conscious about. I remember being a teenager and always fretting about every blemish, not wanting to go out in a bikini in case I had a rash or pimple or something to be embarrassed about. As angels, we have flawless bodies. Being seen in a bra certainly wasn’t going to bother me.”

Lexi stared at her contemplatively as she thought about it. “I guess I didn’t experience a lot of that kind of worry since I wasn’t in high school. My parents sold me off when I was fourteen. I’ve never worried about what I look like because all it brings me is trouble.”

Clarice pulled her into a tight embrace. “I know what you mean, Lexi. My Mom always said that Aria and I were too pretty for our own damn good. She was right in some cases. We had a stalker once, who would follow us everywhere we went right after high school. He’d leave notes in our lockers at the gym. We had both made it clear we weren’t interested in men, but he was the type that couldn’t except that. We finally had to get a restraining order on him after we found him in our room one night. Mom came running down the hall with a butcher knife when she heard Aria scream. I don’t know what the idiot thought he was going to get with that kind of behavior, but a butcher knife waved around under his nose wasn’t it. Boys at that age let hormones do all of their thinking. Some of them grow out of it, while some of them just get worse with age. Some of them just get freaking weird. The last time we saw him was the day we moved away to college. He was hanging around one of the neighbor’s houses a few blocks away, just outside of the restraining order perimeter.”

“That sounds like the creeps I’ve been dealing with,” Lexi muttered with a small shake of her head. “Except money makes that kind of behavior worse.”

“What’s your last name, Lexi?” Clarice asked in a calm voice as she continued holding her tightly.

“White,” Lexi answered, her voice curious. “Why?”

“Well, that’s going to make things difficult,” Clarice sighed resignedly. “What are your parent’s first names?”

“Trisha and Adam,” Lexi replied with a frown. “What do you want to know for?”

“Adam White,” Clarice groaned. “There’s going to be a million of them.”

“Clarice?” Lexi prompted questioningly.

“I’m going to pay your parent’s a visit and have a little chat,” Clarice informed her lightly. “If I can find them, that is.”

Lexi was silent for almost a minute before she spoke again. “What are you going to do to them?”

“Let’s just say that I’m going to enlighten them,” Clarice said with a frosty smile.

Lexi didn’t say anything, but she did pull Clarice into a tighter embrace.

They stood there until the sun finally crested the horizon. Clarice sighed as she released their newest angel. “I better go back to the library before the children wake up.”

“Thanks, Clarice,” Lexi spoke softly, her voice barely a whisper. “For everything.”

Clarice leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “Happy Birthday, Lexi.”

Lexi beamed back at her, love radiating out of her in waves. “It’s definitely been the best birthday ever.”

Clarice jumped lightly down the ladder opening and blurred through the house until she was back in the library. The children were all fast asleep still. Calypso had played her harp for them after they had all gone to bed. She had sung a lullaby that had dropped them all deep into a peaceful sleep. Clarice had expected some of them to wake up with night terrors, but Calypso had clearly worked her magic on them well.

“I’m going to start making some breakfast for them,” she heard their mother say. “I’m guessing they’ll start waking up soon.”

Clarice smiled at the lucky kiddos. They had a world class chef on hand to make them breakfast. It was a small thing, but they deserved all of the goodness they could get out of their new life to counterbalance the cards they had been dealt so far.

Clarice opened the lid to one of the laptops in the library and did a quick search on the missingkidsdotorg site. She looked at the name on their auras and ran it through the search. She was able to get the city they were missing from, but not who the parents were. She hoped the children knew their home addresses and parents’ names.

An eight year old named Luther was the first child to rise. He sat bolt upright, looking around blankly. Clarice waved at him and his eyes suddenly lit up with the memory of the night before.

“My mom’s making some breakfast for you when you’re ready,” she told him softly.

His eyes lit up with excitement and he stepped gingerly around the other sleeping kids. Clarice smiled to herself as she watched him make a beeline for the veranda.

It wasn’t long before all of the children were awake and eagerly joining Luther on the veranda.

As they ate, Clarice quizzed them for parents’ names and addresses. She was even able to get quite a few phone numbers. It still felt strange not needing to write it down somewhere to remember. Her memory was like a bottomless pit now, with no end to the things she could instantly recall.

“Most of them live within a few hundred miles of each other,” Clarice told the other angels. “The demons didn’t go very far to find kids to snatch. I’m going to start calling the parents I have phone numbers for and setting up meetings. We can probably call the police department the demon worked at to get information about the other kids’ parents.”

“You’re so good at the extrovert stuff too,” Aria congratulated her with a grateful smile. “I’m totally good with taking the kids to their parents after you set up the meeting.”

“You should probably focus on scouting, since you can fly,” Clarice suggested as she absently ruffled the hair of a girl that was hugging her. Some of the children just wanted to feel the powerful love and comfort that angel embraces offered and would randomly run over and hug them. “We don’t want any surprises popping up, especially with all of these kids here.”

Aria nodded her agreement. “Okay, twist my arm why don’t you. I’ll fly if I have to.”

Calypso laughed at Aria’s words, absently rustling the hair of two kids that were attached to her.

“When is Dad going to become an angel?” Aria asked their mother as she entered with another platter loaded down with food.

“Sometime today, he says,” their mother replied absently as she refilled the plates of several of the teenage boys who had bottomless pits for stomachs. “Probably after we’ve finished reuniting the kids with their families.”

“You need to find Devon a wife while you’re out and about too,” their mother added firmly. “He’s not going to make the change until he’s started a family. If we leave it up to him, he’ll be an old man before he finds someone to marry.”

“Okay, I’ll add it to my to-do list,” Clarice responded with a wry smile.

After they were all fed and being entertained by Calypso and Lexi, Clarice went back to the library to make some phone calls. She started with the youngest child that knew their parent’s number, Julie, who was seven years old.

“Hello, this is Deborah,” a woman’s voice answered her first call.

“Hello Deborah, my name is Clarice,” she introduced herself, using her angel voice to make sure she had the woman’s attention. “Calypso, Aria, and I have rescued some children from a bad place and one of them is yours. We have reason to believe the government is partially involved in the abductions, so we would like to bring her to you in person, rather than deal with law enforcement. Is there somewhere we can meet you with Julie?”

The line went silent for a moment, then a choked sob escaped the woman. “You have my Julie?”

“Yes, she is safe now, but we need to talk about what she has been through,” Clarice told her gently. “Where can we meet up?”

“I’ll drive home right now,” the woman choked out, her voice filled with emotion. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

Clarice confirmed her address, then hung up the phone. She found Julie playing hopscotch with Lexi in the dirt where they had drawn crude hopscotch lines. “Julie, it’s time to go back to your mom now,” Clarice told her with a warm smile.

Julie stopped jumping and immediately ran up to Clarice, her eyes shining with eagerness. “I’m ready!”

Clarice pulled her up into her arms. “We’re going to fly this time, okay?”

The Julie’s eyes went wide, and her smile nearly split her face in half. With a laugh, Clarice launched into the air and rocketed across the continent. Julie screamed with excitement as they went many times the speed of sound without a trace of wind. She landed in the front yard of a small house and waited another ten minutes for the mother to arrive. It was surprisingly quiet on the street. One car drove past while they waited, but the driver had been completely oblivious to the angel near the house.

A white Ford Focus pulled into the driveway and a woman close to Clarice’s age launched out of the car like she was ejected. With a low cry, she took her daughter from Clarice’s arms and hugged her tightly, tears streaming down her face.

“Mommy, I missed you so much!” Julie told her mother as she clung to her neck.

“I missed you to, Julie,” Deborah sniffed, her hand petting her daughter’s head.

“Do you mind if we go inside before anyone notices me here?” Clarice asked gently.

The young mother smiled through her tears and hurried up to the front door. She struggled for a moment to get her keys without putting her daughter down but eventually managed to get the door unlocked.

Clarice followed her inside, noting the large stack of missing posters sitting on an end table. She heard another vehicle pull up, and a moment later the young father also came in. When he saw his daughter in her mother’s arms, he rushed forward and pulled them both into a hug, sobbing his heart out. Clarice left them to their reunion for another five minutes before she spoke up.

“I need to speak with one of you in private for a moment,” Clarice told them softly.

“I’ll go,” Deborah said, briefly touching her husband’s cheek and kissing her daughter’s forehead.

Deborah led her into a bedroom and closed the door. “Where did you find her?”

“This isn’t going to be pleasant,” Clarice warned her sympathetically. “You may want to sit down.”

Deborah’s eyes began streaming tears again as she sat on the edge of the bed and watched Clarice with dread.

“We were following the trail of a corrupt police chief who was involved in human trafficking,” Clarice began, wishing there was a nice way to tell someone their daughter had been tortured. “We tracked him to an abandoned dairy farm. There were forty other kids in an underground bunker beneath a silo. The police chief was not a human. He was a demon. I know that sounds crazy, but if angels exist, so can demons, apparently. They were harvesting the children’s blood, but they were doing horrible things to them while they harvested their blood. I won’t go into the details, because they are too horrible to repeat. Calypso was able to erase most of their memories, so all they remember is the day they were taken to the silo. They have no memory of the horrible things done to them. Calypso healed their wounds as well. I’m so sorry that this happened to your daughter, Deborah.”

Deborah was staring at her with horrified eyes. She let out a despairing wail and Clarice pulled her into a comforting embrace, flooding her system with love and comfort. Deborah gasped as she felt the overpowering emotions flood her body, slowly drying up her tears.

“She remembers there were demons, and I want you to understand that they are real as well,” Clarice told her gently. “We were able to easily kill them, but there may be stronger demons out there that are not so easily vanquished. Don’t trust anyone in positions of authority for now. The FBI, police, CPS, none of them. These demons have infiltrated many of our institutions and we are still trying to figure out the extent of their influence.”

She felt Deborah nod into her shoulder as she clung to her for the relief she needed to escape the horrors in her mind.

“I have 39 other children to get back to their parents, so I need to leave you now,” Clarice told her regretfully. “I wish I could stay longer to help you.”

“Thank you!” Deboarh whispered fervently. “Thank you for bringing my baby back to me.”

“You are more than welcome,” Clarice smiled down at her. “We are going to fix this broken world.”

The small family of three followed her out onto the porch to say goodbye. Julie wanted one last angel hug. Clarice grinned as she pulled her up into her arms again. “You take care of your parents, okay Julie?”

“Okay, Clarice,” Julie accepted with a firm nod.

“Goodbye, Julie,” Clarice smiled wistfully as she handed her back to her parents. She stepped away and then launched herself into the air, disappearing in seconds.

Chapter 10

Clarice spent the entire day, well into the evening, flying children back to their parents. They hadn’t run into any situations similar to Lexi’s where their parents had sold them off, much to her relief. It had been an emotionally taxing day, making Clarice glad that she had a nonstop supply of positive energy charging her emotional matrix. Most of the parents had feared their children dead. Some of them had been missing for several years, enduring horrors that Clarice couldn’t even imagine. Each time she delivered a child to their parent she felt an increase in her determination to rid the world of evil.

“How are you doing?” Aria asked as she flew down to land next to her on the widows walk. Her eyes were full of concern as she observed her sister.

“It’s been a day of heavy emotional toll,” Clarice admitted with a sigh. “If I wasn’t an angel I think this would have crushed me.”

Aria impulsively pulled her into an embrace. Clarice felt her positive energy intake double as Aria projected love into her meridians.

“You did some amazing good today,” Aria praised her softly. “You don’t just look like an angel; you act like an angel.”

“Thanks, Aria,” Clarice murmured, closing her eyes and soaking up the positivity charging her soul. “Knowing I’ll always have you to count on makes a huge difference. I can’t imagine what this must have been like for Calypso, being alone for all of those years.”

“Especially since she can’t remember being human,” Aria added, wonder in her voice. “We remember what it felt like to be human. She doesn’t have that same dichotomy to help her realize just how much better it feels to be an angel.”

“I wonder if there is some way to unlock her memories,” Clarice mused quietly. “Assuming she ever was human. It’s entirely possible that she is an original angel or something. Otherwise, that begs the question of who the angel was that transformed her?”

“So, she either came from some kind of angel race, or there is another angel running around somewhere,” Aria repeated with a frown. “We’ve had enough publicity by now that if there were another angel somewhere, you would think they would have stopped by to say hi or something. It’s hard to believe there would be demons abducting children everywhere if there were other angels, but maybe they are like Calypso and aren’t battle angels. My punch certainly didn’t do anything to that demon. Maybe our angel fire is the only thing capable of killing them.”

“Interesting idea,” Clarice praised her. Her cheeks moved against Aria’s neck as she smiled. “I know you’re a physicist and everything, but you’re pretty damn smart.”

“Yeah, says Dr. Clarice, with a PhD in awesomeness,” Aria teased with a giggle.

“Being awesome is hard work, I’ll have you know,” Clarice declared mockingly, her grin widening. “I have to remind myself how awesome I am at least a dozen times a day. Sometimes I even polish off my degree to remind myself how awesome I am.”

They both heard Lexi snort a laugh from inside the house. Clarice stepped back with her hands on Aria’s shoulders, her eyes full of mirth. “Did you hear something? It sounded like a prospective student making sounds of eager interest in the ways of awesomeness.”

“Yes, it definitely sounded eager,” Aria agreed with mock seriousness. “I think we’ll have to properly induct her into the ways of awesomeness with a proper hazing ritual.”

“I’m thinking a flight up to low earth orbit,” Clarice suggested with a wicked grin. “Then we drop her into the pacific. It’s not like it will hurt her.”

“Yes, I’m game,” Lexi called out eagerly.

“Oh,” Clarice sighed, her face crestfallen. “You’re not supposed to look forward to the hazing ritual.”

“No, don’t make me do it,” Lexi deadpanned, her voice wry. “Please, don’t drop me.”

There was a sudden surge of light from down inside of the house that interrupted their conversation.

“That felt like a new angel transformation,” Aria exclaimed, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

“Dad,” Clarice breathed, her lips curving up into an excited smile. “There’s finally a male angel. I’m not sure how I feel about that.”

“Well, you’re just going to have to get used to it,” her father declared in a much deeper and powerful voice. “Cause you’re stuck with me now.”

Aria looked at Clarice for a moment, then they were both racing into the house at angel speed. They burst through their parents’ bedroom door, nearly removing the door casing in their haste.

Their father stood wrapped in their mother’s embrace, looking no older than the rest of them. His eyes were a deep cerulean blue, rather than violet. His face was hairless.

“You’ve got a man’s jaw now dad!” Clarice exclaimed in mock amazement. “People are going to start calling you Chad now.”

He laughed a deep, booming laugh, charging the air around them with joy. Clarice and Aria both joined their mother, embracing their father with a feeling of jubilation. Their parents were finally both safe. Clarice had been terrified that a missile would somehow get through their vigilant monitoring, or some other attack. Now, all they had to worry about was their Uncle.

“Welcome to the angel club, Dad,” Aria whispered in an emotion choked voice, silver tears running down her cheeks.

“Yeah, welcome to the club Dad,” Clarice beamed at him, her eyes wet with tears of joy as well. “We are literally going to be together forever now.”

“Is it too late to revert?” their father teased, a wide grin on his chiseled face.

“Yes, it’s much too late,” their mother confirmed with a possessive look in her violet eyes.

Clarice jumped as a golden glow suddenly surrounded the four of them. She looked at Aria and realized their tears had touched when their cheeks had bumped together.

“What’s with the ritzy glow?” their father asked with a bemused expression. “I feel like-“ he broke off as they were suddenly charged with intense energy, just like the time before with Calypso.

When it vanished, Clarice blinked as the sensation of heat in her eyes grabbed her attention. She looked into Aria’s eyes and they both gasped. Aria’s eyes were no longer a shade of violet. Golden orbs of fire stared back at her, lines of energy slowly twisting around her irises.

“What are all of these energy lines I’m seeing?” their father asked curiously, his eyes looking all around them.

“I’d like to know that too,” their mother added as she stared around intently.

“Those are the planet’s meridians,” Clarice informed them absently, absorbed with her own change. “You can also see radio waves.”

“My eyes feel hot,” Aria commented as she studied Clarice. “Some of the nodes in your meridians are a lot brighter to me now too.” She looked at their parents and frowned. “Theirs are too.”

“I have a feeling our angel fire is a lot more powerful now,” Clarice murmured as she studied the bright nodes in the other angels as well. “I’m pretty sure if we focus our eye beams at the brighter nodes that it will do more damage. Remember how long it took to kill those demons?”

“I feel like it can go off at any moment now too,” Aria observed, blinking slowly as she looked around. “It used to need a little time to charge. I don’t think I need to work myself into a righteous fury to use them anymore either.”

“I feel like I got put on the fast track program for promotion,” their father noted with a wry smile. “Shouldn’t it have taken me longer to evolve?”

“I think all it requires are the right conditions to be met,” Clarice responded, her tone still far away. “I need to go somewhere remote to try something. You too, Aria.”

“Is it a secret?” their mother asked dryly.

“No, I just want to see if I’m right before I tell you,” Clarice explained patiently. “We’ll tell you all about it once we figure out how and if it works. Come along, Aria.”

Aria shared a wry look with her parents and followed Clarice out the door. Lexi came around the corner ahead of them, her eyes eager.

“Can I go with?” she asked hopefully. “I want to see what you can do.”

“Let’s see if we can get you some wings first,” Clarice suggested with a wink. “Calypso, can we borrow you for a minute?”

Lexi’s eyes widened and she began bouncing on her toes excitedly.

Calypso came out of the music room on the second floor and joined them with a questioning look in her swirling orbs. When she saw their eyes, her own eyes widened and she suddenly grinned.

“You two evolved again,” she marveled with a wide smile.

“We had another angel tear exchange,” Clarice informed her with a calculating gaze. “I have a feeling that different classes of angels cause different effects, and you’re the only other class of angel in this house. We need to get Lexi some wings.”

Without another word, Calypso pulled Lexi into a hug. Aria joined the hug a moment later. Clarice watched as their energy began exchanging, creating a maelstrom of light to her enhanced eyes. After a few minutes the energy seemed to reach a kind of equilibrium and Lexi suddenly started glowing faintly. A moment later, wings appeared on her back, tearing through her shirt.

“Oh yeah, I’d forgotten about that,” Clarice apologized with a rueful smile. “Maybe we should go visit Tamra before we go do some field testing. She’s on the other side of the continent, so hopefully it isn’t too late for a visit.”

Lexi nodded vigorously as she held the remains of her shirt up over her chest.

They exited the house and launched themselves into the air, waiting for Lexi to get a feel for flying. She still had to deal with wind currents, so they couldn’t arc across the continent like they normally would.

Lexi was ecstatic to be going slower. She whooped as she flew high up into the clouds and began flying West. Clarice deactivated her hover ability and flew alongside her. There was something about feeling the wind in her hair that made flying more fun. Even fighting the wind, they were able to fly just under the sound barrier.

They passed a passenger jet a few thousand feet away. Clarice wondered if there would be videos of them online soon. They had made enough public appearances that she wasn’t too worried about one more YouTube video of angels making the rounds. She was no longer worried about what the world religions would think of angels. They were probably all controlled by demons anyway.

It took them over three hours to fly to the West Coast and the sun was just sinking below the horizon when they arrived at Tamra’s house. They dropped down onto the front lawn and then knocked on her front door.

“Measuring time?” Tamra asked as soon as she opened the door.

“Yeah, plus we have a new angel,” Aria told her with a nod at Lexi.

Tamra’s eyes widened as she observed Lexi in angel form. “Is that you, Lexi?”

“Hi Tamra,” Lexi grinned at their tailor with joy in her eyes. “I’ll never have to worry about some bastard taking advantage of me again now.”

“Humans can become angels?” Tamra asked in shock. “I thought you came from heaven or something.”

“We did just come from heaven,” Clarice told her with a mischievous smile. “We flew through the heavens from the other side of the continent to get here.”

Tamra stared at her for a moment, then began to laugh. “So, you’re not from some paradisical realm of the gods or something like that?”

“History has been very inaccurate,” Aria told her with a rueful shake of her head. “If there is a realm of divine beings, we don’t know about it.”

“There are a few things they got right though,” Clarice acknowledged gravely. “Angels are innately good…we think. We find acts of evil repugnant. Of course, we don’t know any other angels, so that’s just a guess. I’m not sure what would happen if a human with a black heart met the requirements to become an angel. Maybe that’s where demons come from.”

“Demons are real?” Tamra stared at her uncertainly, unsure if she were joking.

“So, it would appear,” Clarice grimaced, her mouth twisting with revulsion. “We rescued forty more children from a bunker where they were being tortured by scaly, horned demons. They were tough, like angels. They could tank one of Aria’s punches. We had to rely on angel fire to destroy them. They were harvesting the blood of terrified children for reasons we do not yet understand. We plan to find the rest of their hidey holes and find out. There’s no room on this world for both angels and demons.”

Tamra shivered as she watched them, her eyes far off. She shook herself and her eyes came back into focus. “Let’s get you all fitted. I’ll find a loaner shirt for you to use until we can get something made for you, Lexi.”

They spent the next thirty minutes getting measured. Tamra wrote it all down on an iPad before transferring the measurements to one of her PC’s. It was like a miniature factory in her home with all of the plotters, automated cutting tables, and sewing machines. When they were finished getting measured she found a modest wing-fitted top for Lexi to wear.

“We’ll send Calypso over with two more angels, if that’s okay,” Aria requested hesitantly. “We’ll bring some money next time too. I totally spaced the whole money thing.”

“There is no way that I will accept any money from you,” Tamra declined, staring at them with determination in her eyes. “I’m not going to go down in history as the person who charged angels money for some clothes. Besides, the service you have done for me by rescuing my niece would pay for anything I make for you a million times over.”

“If you ever feel like making a career change, let me know,” Clarice told Tamra with a half-smile. “The only downsides to being an angel is that we don’t think we can die, even if we want to, and we are pretty sure we can’t have children. We’ll probably find out soon enough, now that my parents are angels.”

Tamra fumbled a piece of cloth that she was folding and stopped to stare at them. “You could turn me into an angel?”

“Yes,” Clarice said simply. “Initially, we had planned on not changing anyone not in our family. However, when we discovered there are demons running the world, we decided there needed to be a lot more of us before we have a chance to take them all down. We don’t know for sure if they have a way to kill us. We just barely discovered that they exist.”

Tamra stared at them with narrowed eyes as she fidgeted with a ruler. “I’ll have to think about it. Maybe I’ll have an answer by the time your parents and Calypso arrive. Honestly, I wanted to have kids of my own, so I don’t know that I’m ready for that kind of a change.”

Clarice felt like a puzzle piece just slid into place and felt her lips turn up into a sly smile. “Tell me Tamra, do you like men with deep voices?”

Aria gave her a startled look, then burst out laughing so hard that tears started leaking out. Tamra stared at them like they had gone mad, her eyes askance.

“Sorry, Tamra,” Clarice apologized through a barely contained grin. “My mom made me promise to be on the lookout for a wife for my Uncle Devon. He also doesn’t want to become an angel until he has had a chance to have a family. Are you available?”

Tamra blinked, taken aback at Clarice’s bluntness. “I’m not seeing anyone, no.”

“How about I bring my uncle over when my parents and Calypso come over?” Clarice offered hopefully. “He’s a good looking guy with a deep voice and a caring nature. He’s the reason we lived long enough to become angels.”

“Suuure,” Tamra drew the word out, her eyes showing both interest and hesitancy. “Trot him on out and we’ll see where the wind blows.”

Clarice pumped her fist and crowed. “Slam dunk!”

“Give me a week to get all of these designed and tailored,” Tamra told her dryly. “Go tell your uncle to start polishing up. I’m picky.”

“You got it,” Clarice grinned, waggling her eyebrows playfully.

“Get out of here, you weirdo,” Tamra made shooing motions with her hands. “My opinion of angels has taken a real hit tonight.”

Clarice laughed and gave Tamra a quick hug. “You just wait until you meet my parents.”

Tamra’s eyes widened as she felt the powerful love and positive energy of an angel channeled into her. When Clarice released her, she stared at her with new eyes.

“Okay, you have raised my opinion again,” Tamra announced with a small smile. “I’ll see you in a week.”

The three of them let themselves out as Tamra immediately began working on her computer to design their clothes.

“You’re really rocking that jacket,” Clarice told Lexi admiringly. “It looks fantastic on you.”

Lexi blushed but had a pleased smile on her face.

“Let’s fly, ladies,” Clarice exploded upward into the sky, followed shortly after by the other two angels.

“Where are we going?” Aria asked curiously.

“There’s a military site in Utah called the Dugway Proving Grounds,” Clarice answered with a wicked grin. “I figure if they can test their biological and chemical weapons over there, we can test our own firepower there without worrying about hurting somebody.”

“Won’t they send more troops out to try and stop us?” Aria asked anxiously.

“So what if they do?” Clarice shrugged with an amused smile. “They can’t hurt us. We just keep doing our thing while they waste munitions on us. It might be good practice for upping our evasion skills. We can see how many bullets and missiles we can dodge. It would probably be good practice for refining our angel fire aiming too. We can try blasting any missiles or even bullets out of the air. We can see just how fast we really are. Just be careful not to get your clothes ruined or you’ll be a naked angel.”

“Just remember to cover yourself with your wings if you get caught in an explosion,” Aria instructed Lexi. “They’re great for shielding you clothes.”

Lexi’s eyes were bright with excited anticipation. She had always been the victim until now. Clarice was curious to see how she handled herself now that she had so much power.

It only took them thirty minutes to get to the testing range. Clarice landed on one of the small mountains. They were surrounded by juniper trees and sage brush. There were dirt roads running through the valleys and several concrete buildings.

“What was it that you were planning on trying out here?” Aria asked pointedly. “You have something more than angel fire in mind, don’t you?”

“Can you feel the energy potential in your palms?” Clarice asked Aria, holding up her own palms.

Aria frowned as she concentrated. “Yeah, now that you mention it. What is it?”

“Watch,” Clarice told her with a grin. She held her arms out wide and then brought them together in a power clap, releasing the energy potential she could feel in her palms. As they smacked together a brilliant white light exploded out of them. The sage brush, cedar and juniper trees in front of them was blasted away in a thirty degree radius in front of her. The devastation traveled for almost a thousand feet, vaporizing or uprooting any vegetation in its path. The rocky cliffs along the tops of the mountain around them shattered, sheering off the top ten feet of the hill.

“Holy freaking crap!” Aria exclaimed as she stared at the devastation in front of Clarice. “It’s like a freaking bomb went off!”

“Pretty much,” Clarice agreed with a satisfied smile. She picked up a rock the size of her head and casually threw it up into the air several hundred feet. As it reached its apex, she triggered the heat in her eyes and a beam of light instantly shot out, vaporizing the unoffending stone.

“My turn,” Aria declared with an eager grin. She picked up another large rock and flung it a thousand feet up into the air. As it began to plummet, her golden eyes flashed a brilliant white and a beam of light shot out, incinerating the rock.

“How do you shoot light beams out of your eyes?” Lexi asked eagerly as she watched them excitedly.

“At your state of evolution, I had to change the positive energy into wrathful energy,” Clarice informed her, frowning as she tried to describe the sensation. “The positive love you always feel charging your soul needs to change to a kind of righteous fury. I would suggest thinking of the guy Aria vaporized back in Beverly Hills.

Lexi stood still for a moment before her whole body burst into light. Clarice picked up another rock and threw it high into the air. Lexi began to glow brighter for a few seconds, then a beam of light shot out of her eyes and impacted the rock, vaporizing it.

“You’ve got it,” Clarice smiled encouragingly.

“I’m going to try the angel clap,” Aria warned them as she spread her arms apart. She brought them together with a lot more force than Clarice had, creating a gust of wind before her palms smacked together with a thunderclap. The surrounding mountains lit up like the sun for several seconds. When the light vanished, the hill on the other side of the valley had a large hole several hundred feet in diameter blown through it. Rocks and dirt began to fall as the area around it caved in.

“Wow, you really put some power into that one,” Clarice breathed, whistling in amazement. “Apparently, we can blast mountains apart now.”

Lexi was gaping at the wholesale destruction in front of Aria. Her sister was also gaping at the unexpected display of power, her eyes disbelieving.

“We’re still practically babies though,” Aria whispered in shock. “What the hell can a fully evolved angel do?”

“I would imagine they could destroy the world, if they chose to,” Clarice mused quietly. “I’m getting a feel for what biblical times must have been like if there were angels running around all over. Whole cities getting destroyed doesn’t seem so fantastical now.”

“Yeah…” Aria agreed uneasily. “I’m not sure anybody should have this much power.”

“We might need it soon, depending on how powerful some of these demons are,” Clarice reminded her gravely.

“I guess we got somebody’s attention,” Aria noted with a wry smile.

Clarice heard the sound of helicopter rotors in the distance and also smiled. “I guess we can get some target practice now.” Clarice looked directly at Lexi. “Just be careful not to hurt anyone, unless one of them happens to be a demon. Most of these soldiers are just kids following orders.”

Lexi nodded her understanding. Her eyes were filled with excitement and just a touch of fear. She hadn’t experienced how invulnerable angel bodies were yet. She would lose that fear with experience.

There were over a dozen Apache gunships of various models and two F35’s far off in the distance. The three angels waited patiently for the helicopters to arrive. As they drew close, Lexi began to glow.

“Should we glow too?” Aria asked playfully. “For the effect?”

“It would be in character, wouldn’t it?” Clarice responded, her lips curving slightly.

The two of them lit up like Lexi, illuminating the surrounding terrain. Clarice was pretty sure it wreaked havoc on the night vision cameras the soldiers were using.

The six Apache gunships came to a halt and fanned out, making a half circle around them a thousand feet away. Clarice blinked in surprise as her mind began decoding the radio waves she could see transmitting between the aircraft.

“Hey Aria, I’m starting to understand what’s being said in their radio transmissions,” Clarice told her sister contemplatively. “Is that happening for you too?”

“Now that you pointed it out, yes,” Aria answered with an appreciative smile.

“Targets are maintaining their position,” a voice spoke over the radio. “They have not shown any sign of hostility yet.”

“You orders are to eliminate with extreme prejudice,” another voice replied crisply. “Unload everything you have on them.”

“With all due respect, sir, I would like a reason for firing on what appear to be angels,” the pilot said uncomfortably. “I don’t plan to spend an eternity in hell.”

“These are not angels, Lieutenant, they are enemies of the state,” the voice snapped irritably. “They are mimicking the appearance of angels with advanced nanotechnology. They can appear as whatever they want. Open fire or there will be a court martial in your future.”

One of the Apache’s began shooting 30mm rounds while another fired a salvo of hellfire missiles. Clarice began vaporizing them at angel speed, the bullets slowing down to a crawl as her mind overclocked itself. To the pilots, it looked like a continuous beam of light shooting out of the angel’s eyes. They couldn’t see that every single bullet was intercepted before it arrived. The hellfire missiles didn’t even move a dozen feet away from their bays before they were vaporized.

The sound of gunfire roared into the night for over five minutes as most of the gunships emptied all of their ordnance. When they finally ran out, the sound of rotors almost seemed quiet in comparison.

“Are you guys finished?” Clarice asked, broadcasting her voice into their transmitters. “We could do this all night if you want.”

“Channel compromised, all pilots switch to alternate channel,” a voice ordered.

“You don’t have any communication mediums that we can’t communicate with you on,” Clarice informed them with a shake of her head. “Why don’t you pack up and go home now. Playtime is over.”

“All pilots return to base,” the same voice commanded in a tone that showed just a touch of exasperation.

“Was there something you actually wanted from us, or do you just like using us as live target practice?” Clarice asked lightly.

“All pilots maintain radio silence,” their commander ordered darkly.

“Are you really angels?” a pilot asked, ignoring the order.

“Yes, we are really angels,” Clarice replied, floating up into the sky. “Thank you, those of you who refused to fire on angels. We will remember you when we meet again.”

There was a gasp and a sudden sense of dread in the other pilots at her words.

“What was all that about?” Aria asked Clarice with a raised eyebrow. “Are we going to see them at the pearly gates or something?”

“I just wanted to get some rumors going among the rank and file in the military,” Clarice explained, glanced up at the F35’s that were now closing in on them. “It might make future encounters easier if everyone is terrified of shooting at the messengers of god.”

“Not bad,” Aria congratulated her with a nod. “I think you missed your calling in life. You should have been a spy master or something. You have a knack for psychological warfare.”

“Are you ready for some more target practice?” Clarice asked as a missile shot off from the F35.

Lexi disintegrated it before it had gone more than a few hundred feet. The other F35 launched several missiles at them in rapid succession. Aria zapped them all out of the sky. The first F35 was banking in preparation to come back around for another volley.

“I wonder how much taxpayer money they’ve wasted on us tonight?” Clarice commented critically.

“Here we go again,” Aria groaned in despair. “You’ve moved from infrastructure to DoD wasteful spending. It’s not like you even pay taxes anymore.”

“That’s because I already paid enough for a lifetime,” Clarice retorted with a toss of her hair. “I’ll bet each of those missiles cost over a hundred grand. We just watched them throw several million tax payer dollars away in less than 10 minutes. Considering we’ve already demonstrated how ineffective their technology is against us several days ago, I think it’s a very relevant complaint. Who’s the moron that keeps sending helicopters and fighter jets after freaking angels? A real genius, no doubt.”

“I can’t argue with that,” Aria admitted with a snort of laughter. “Seriously, you would think they would have taken a different approach after a nuclear missile failed to hurt us.”

“You got nuked?” Lexi gasped in amazement.

“Yeah, when we were taking out their satellites,” Clarice responded, absently destroying several additional missiles as the F35 went past again. “They had a space based nuclear station, and they detonated a nuke next to us. It totally incinerated our clothes. We had to run back to the cabin butt naked. At least I followed last and got a good view.”

“Isn’t Aria your sister?” Lexi asked, her face curious. “Who checks out their sister?”

“First of all, she is my step sister, so we have no blood relations,” Clarice declared airily. “And second of all, she is freaking hot. You would have to be blind not to see it. Are you telling me that you don’t think she’s hot?”

“There’s no safe way for me to answer that question,” Lexi pointed out with a raised eyebrow.

“Sure there is,” Clarice disagreed. “You just say yes, she is hot.”

“If I say she’s hot, you’ll ask me if I’m coming on to your sister,” Lexi argued with a level gaze at Clarice.

“Wait, what?” Clarice demanded, askance. “You’re coming on to my sister?”

“Yes, Clarice, I’m coming on to your sister,” Lexi stated flatly.

“Well, I don’t blame you,” Clarice sighed lustily. “She’s freaking hot.”

“I think I’m getting replaced as Tweedle Dee,” Aria murmured sadly.

“I’m sure Mom will have some new names for us,” Clarice assured her confidently. “The three stooges or some such.”

Lexi was watching the two of them wistfully as the waited for the F35 to return.

“What’s that look for?” Clarice asked her suspiciously.

“I just love how close you are with your family,” Lexi explained with a sad smile. “It’s awesome to see how much you all love each other.”

“You’re a part of that family now too,” Clarice told her firmly, her eyes softening. “We love you too, Lexi.”

Lexi froze at her words. She closed her eyes, and quicksilver tears ran down her cheeks.

Clarice destroyed the next missile, then flew over to Lexi and pulled her into a warm embrace. “We love you, Lexi. For real. You really are a part of our family now.”

Lexi pulled Clarice tight and laid her head on her shoulder as more tears flowed. “I’ve never had anyone tell me they love me before,” she whispered, a smile on her lips. “It’s amazing how powerful such simple words are.”

“Words have power,” Aria told Lexi as she flew over to them. She kissed Lexi’s forehead and continued. “I’ve seen Calypso use words of power before. I think love is one of those words of power. It’s criminal negligence that you haven’t been shown the love you deserve before now. But we’re here for you now, and you’re going to be stuck with us for all eternity.”

Lexi’s face lit up with a contented smile. “Thank you two, for everything. I love you too.”

Aria blasted another missile out of the sky, then tapped into their pilots comms. “We’re trying to have a moment here, would you mind giving us a minute?”

Clarice snorted a laugh, prompting a questioning noise from Lexi.

“Aria just tapped into their pilots radio and asked them to give us a minute because we were having a moment.”

“You can tap into their radios?” Lexi asked in amazement.

“Apparently so,” Clarice grinned mischievously. “We’ve been carrying on conversations with the pilots while they’ve been trying to find secure channels. It’s petty, but fun.”

Lexi giggled and pulled Clarice in tighter. “Words can’t express how grateful I am that you rescued me and how happy I am to be here with you now.”

Clarice stroked her hair affectionately, letting her love flow into Lexi’s core. “We know, Lexi. The only good thing about your whole ordeal is that we ended up meeting you and bringing you home. Life is only going to continue getting better for you every day from now on.”

Lexi nodded, her head still buried in Clarice’s neck as her tears flowed freely.

Chapter 11

As soon as they landed on the front lawn, Calypso flew out of the house and pulled Aria into a hug, followed by Clarice and Lexi.

“I know you’re basically invulnerable, but I always worry when you all go out,” Calypso explained as she enfolded Lexi in her arms. “I’m glad you all made it back.”

Lexi melted into Calypso, soaking up the love and care she had missed out on her entire life.

“You never have to explain yourself when it comes to hugs,” Aria told Calypso firmly. “We’re angels; we can never get enough hugs.”

“Seriously,” Clarice agreed with a wry smile. “They even built it into the angel package. We get rewarded with supercharged positive energy anytime we embrace each other.”

“Don’t call it an angel package, Clarice,” Aria begged plaintively. “That just sounds so wrong.”

“Get your mind out of the gutter, you dirty angel,” Clarice admonished her sister with mock severity. “You’ll contaminate the purer minded angels with your lascivious talk.”

“I’m not even going to ask,” Calypso murmured with resigned shake of her head. “How did your testing go? You were gone a lot longer than I expected.”

“We ended up flying the slow way so that Lexi could enjoy her first time flying,” Clarice explained. “It was about three hours each way. We spent an hour at Tamra’s and another hour toying with the military while we tried out some of our new powers.”

“Apparently, we can hack into radio waves, even when they are encrypted,” Aria told Calypso with a wicked smile. “We had a lot of fun talking with the pilots while they were unloading all of their bullets and missiles on us.”

“I see your clothes are still intact,” Calypso noted with an amused smile. “I guess you were too fast for them.”

“We were actually zapping them out of the air with angel fire,” Aria told her enthusiastically. “You wouldn’t believe how fast we can track and fire. We were literally shooting machine gun bullets out of the air.”

“Wow, that’s quite the power boost,” Calypso raised her eyebrows, impressed.

“That wasn’t the impressive part,” Lexi told her excitedly, her eyes filled with awe. “They do this angel clap that destroys entire mountains. Aria blew a hole right through a mountain range several hundred feet in diameter.”

Calypso blinked, looking at Aria with concern in her swirling eyes. “That’s a lot of power. It reminds me of the biblical stories. With all of the new angels we are adding to our group, we’ll need to be very careful to make sure they are people who won’t abuse that kind of power.”

“I think we need to figure out how to unlock some of these other angel classes,” Clarice declared gravely. “Maybe we should limit how many battle angels there are. There are five of us now. We invited Tamra to the angel club, but she wants to have a family first. Should we start looking at more of the former patients that you healed to recruit?”

“That would be a good place to start, I think,” Calypso nodded, her lips pursed. “I think it might be time for another chat with Jason and Julie to see how things are coming along. In person this time.”

“Good idea,” Aria agreed, glancing at Lexi as she spoke. “You weren’t here for this part of the plan, so here’s a quick summary. We started contacting people Calypso had healed previously. We’re recruiting allies to form a support network to help organize events and influence public opinion. If we can use this network to disseminate information about the presence of demons among us, we could probably have a lot more people on the lookout for the little bastards.”

“I’m going to go get a pulse on what’s going on in the media before the call,” Clarice told them with a wry smile. “I’m sure it’s getting pretty wild by now.”

“Okay, we’ll be along shortly,” Aria replied, glancing at Calypso with a hungry look in her eyes. “I was going to see if Calypso wanted to go for a short flight.”

“Preferably somewhere far out of aura range,” Clarice suggested dryly. “I need to be able to focus.”

Calypso’s face turned red, her eyes avoiding them. Aria’s face also lit up, but she ignored it and took Calypso by the hand and launched up into the air.

“Why out of aura range?” Lexi asked as she followed Clarice into the house.

“Because when an angel like Calypso gets intimate, she broadcasts her passion around like a beacon,” Clarice explained with a chuckle. “It’s very distracting.”

“Oh,” Lexi blinked, her cheeks coloring slightly. “So, they’re a thing, huh?”

“That they are,” Clarice confirmed with a grin as she entered the library. “Calypso and I are a thing too. Just an FYI so it doesn’t sneak up on you at an awkward moment.”

Lexi stared at her peculiarly as she opened up one of the laptops. “She’s dating both of you?”

“Yep,” Clarice nodded with a shrug. “We weren’t about to fight over her. Aria’s been my best friend since I was seven years old.”

“You don’t feel jealous at all?” Lexi probed, her face doubtful.

“If it had been anyone but Aria, I would feel hella jealous,” Clarice declared with an ironic smile. “But it’s Aria. We’ve always shared everything.”

“Wow, you really do love each other, don’t you?” Lexi murmured, her eyes a mixture of respect and longing.

“I would cut off my right arm for that woman,” Clarice pronounced, her face serious. A moment later her lips twitched. “I would if it was possible, anyway.”

“Do you mind if I read over your shoulder?” Lexi asked hesitantly. “I haven’t touched a computer in over four years.”

“We have plenty here for you too,” Clarice told her, reaching over to a cubby hole under one of the desks and pulling another laptop out. “You should get some practice in if it’s been that long. You can just watch what I’m doing or ask me for help if you have any questions.”

“Thank you, Clarice,” Lexi spoke softly, her aura radiating gratitude. “I keep having to remind myself that I’m not dreaming.”

Clarice squeezed her hand affectionately. “If you tell me something like that, I’ll start pinching you all of the time to remind you that you’re awake.”

Clarice didn’t have to look far to find news about angels. Half of the news headlines were about people sighting angels all over the country. She skimmed the first one, where some passengers on a jet had recorded video of three angels speeding past the jet. She let out a laugh and pointed the article out to Lexi.

“It looks like someone was looking out the window when we flew past that jet last night,” Clarice said with a rueful smile. “I guess we should have flown closer. They didn’t get very good video of us.”

Lexi stared at the video curiously. “Yeah, we barely show up in the moonlight.”

“The comments are making fun of them for capturing a flock of birds,” Clarice grinned, her eyes twinkling with amusement. “Someone is claiming it’s mass hysteria and that people are just seeing angels everywhere because it’s trending.”

She clicked over to the next article, curious to see where else they had been seen.

ANGELS ATTACKING LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS?

Multiple videos have surfaced showing what appears to be an angelic being vaporizing several police officers. There has been no explanation given for the attacks, and people are concerned that these creatures are intent on destroying human civilization. There are reports that they have been seen abducting children and attacking military assets.

A spokesperson with the US Army has neither confirmed nor denied any engagements with angels, but an official familiar with the incidents who spoke with us on condition of anonymity, revealed that while several Apache’s were practicing test maneuvers over the Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah, they were attacked by three angels. There were no casualties announced, but the military is remaining tight lipped about any details.

Several prominent community figures have voiced their concerns, stressing that whatever these entities are, they are clearly hostile and should be avoided at all costs.

Clarice snorted derisively. “Yep, demons are in control of the media. At least we know where to look next.”

“That’s bullshit!” Lexi exclaimed indignantly. “You’ve been saving kids, not abducting them!”

“Like I said, the demons are probably in control of the media,” Clarice repeated with a steely glint in her golden eyes. “They’re probably in control of pretty much everything right now. We should probably go sniff around Capitol Hill soon and clean house.”

“At least the public isn’t buying it,” Lexi commented, slightly mollified. “Look at the comments.”

Clarice chuckled as she read some of the comments.

mysocksrocks442 -> Does ANYONE believe what the media says anymore? There are videos all over the web showing these angels rescuing children from child traffickers like those cops. They’re finally doing what we should have done a long time ago and wiping the floor with these pieces of sh!t!

morseydorseyclocktower -> My buddy said he was in one of the Apache’s in Utah, and that they had been ordered to kill the angels. He said they didn’t stand a chance. The angels just vaporized all of their bullets and hellfire missiles in the air. The angels never once attacked the choppers, even though they were under attack and could have wiped them out. He said the angels also hacked their secure communications and thanked the few pilots who refused to attack angels. I’m not a religious person, but it feels like something big is about to happen. If you’re a bad person, you might want to think about changing your ways.

grotekthegrotesque -> If this were a newspaper I’d be wiping my a$$ with it. I haven’t seen such a load of sh!t since I took a dump this morning. One of my neighbors had her son returned to her by one of these angels after they had been missing for over a year. She said the angel had told her that actual demons were pulling the strings in the government and media, and articles like this definitely make me think it’s true. She said demons were responsible for the abductions as well. A couple of weeks ago I would have shaken my head at such nonsense. Not anymore. There’s a war going on, and it’s going to get crazy, so buckle up!

“They haven’t been able to lock the internet down enough to prevent the truth from getting out,” Clarice noted with a smirk. “They’ve certainly been pushing for more control over the internet for the last decade. I would imagine that if we had started this adventure ten years later, you wouldn’t see any videos or comments that they don’t want you to see.”

They both paused as they felt a powerful surge of energy pulse through them. With her enhanced eyes, Clarice could see the energy wave as it blasted past them and continued on for several miles. She noticed that the laptop had lost power and cursed. Whatever it was had knocked their power out.

“I wonder if this is one of those unconventional weapons Uncle Devon warned us about,” Clarice muttered darkly. She blurred out to the front porch and launched herself into the sky, zooming her eyes into the epicenter from where the surge had originated. It was at least twenty miles away, up in the mountains.

“Clarice, do you have any idea what that was?” her mother asked from down on the ground.

She dropped back to the ground, her eyes narrowing as a sneaking suspicion started growing in her mind. Her parents were both waiting for her as she landed.

“I have a feeling it might have been your redheaded step child doing something to trip Calypso’s EMP,” Clarice responded with a wicked smile slowly growing on her face. “I’ve seen something similar, on a much smaller scale.”

Her mother looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “So, she turns into an EMP whenever she gets…excited?”

“Yep,” Clarice nodded, her eyes dancing with mischief. “Given her past experiences, she’s probably evolved again now too.”

“That’s my girl,” her dad said proudly, his own eyes filled with mischief.

“I’m glad they found some privacy, but it didn’t exactly stay private did it?” her mother noted with a small smile. She looked at her husband with a speculative look. “Speaking of privacy, you and I need to find some privacy.”

Clarice shook her head ruefully. She was still having a hard time getting used to her parents looking no older than herself. Her facial features were so similar that they could have passed for sisters.

“I don’t understand,” Lexi said with a frown, watching the three of them in confusion. “Are you saying Calypso is the person that made that energy wave because she got excited?”

“When she is excited in an intimate way,” Clarice clarified, waggling her eyebrows suggestively.

“Oooh…” Lexi said slowly, her cheeks coloring slightly. “That seems like it could get awkward.”

“Yeah, they really need to go find an island somewhere far out at sea to play on,” Clarice noted critically. She looked back at the cabin with a frown. “I wonder if the breakers just got tripped, or if she actually fried the electronics. I know the laptop died.”

There were several electronic beeps as the power came back on. She heard her uncle close the breaker panel and begin walking their way.

“I guess that answers that question,” her dad remarked in his new deep voice. “Maybe the laptops will come back to life too.”

“I hope so, cause we have a meeting with Jason in a little while,” Clarice declared, eyeing her parents speculatively. “I almost forgot, but we need to get the two of you over to Tamra’s before you sprout wings so she can get your measurements. We have to take Uncle Devon too.”

“Why do I need to go?” her uncle asked as he joined them.

“Tamra is single, pretty, doesn’t want to turn into an angel until she has some kids, and is an awesome person,” Clarice explained in a clinical voice. “It occurred to us that we knew someone else that had the same life goals. Ring any bells?”

“I’m not sure that now is the time to start playing the dating game,” her uncle shrugged uncomfortably. “We have too many other projects spread out in front of us to add a complication like that.”

“What’s that sound?” her mother asked her father with a puzzled frown.

“Bok bok,” her father answered, a puzzled look on his face.

“Bok bok bok,” her mother agreed, tucking her hands under her armpits and flapping her elbows up and down. Her father did the same and they began strutting around her uncle, clucking like chickens. Clarice quickly joined in until her uncle finally threw up his hands in defeat, laughing at their antics.

“Fine, I’ll go see her,” he gave in with a rueful shake of his head. “You two finally look as young as you act.”

“Now that the matter is settled, when is she expecting us?” her mother asked, immediately returning to normal. “Is today too early?”

“I think we had better make it today, before you two end up with wings,” Clarice decided, studying her uncle with a critical eye. “We need to get you pimped up.”

“Pimped up?” he repeated disapprovingly.

“You know, make you presentable for your date,” Clarice clarified with a slow smile. “Don’t worry, Uncle, you’re in good hands.”

“That’s because we’re angels, so they have to be good hands, right?” Lexi looked at Clarice for support.

“Oh no,” her mother groaned, putting her face in her hands. “Now there are two of them.”

“Double the goodness,” Clarice sang, her eyes glowing with mirth.

Her uncle stared at the two of them levelly, then turned and walked away, shaking his head.

“Go get pretty, Uncle!” Clarice called after his retreating back. “There will be an inspection later!”

His shoulders hunched as he increased his speed.

“You really are a bad angel,” her mother told her in an approving tone that was at odds with her words.

“I’m here to balance Calypso and Aria out,” Clarice declared piously. “There has to be comic relief, or eternity will get extremely boring.”

“Do you think-“ her father cut off as their sensitive ears picked up the sound of helicopters in the distance.

“There’s going to be hell to pay if they haven’t learned their lesson yet,” Clarice declared grimly. “Mom, Dad, if you need to use angel fire you need to stoke some righteous fury in your soul. Usually thinking about protecting loved ones is enough to switch the positive energy over to aggression.” She paused, looking up toward the mountain where she was pretty sure Aria and Calypso had gone. “It would be nice if Calypso were here so that she could make a gateway and get Uncle Devon out of here.”

Her father tried to crack his knuckles threateningly, but slumped his shoulders when he discovered their new bodies didn’t accommodate knuckle cracking.

“We still think your tough, Dad,” Clarice assured him earnestly. “Even if you can’t crack your neck and knuckles anymore.”

He gave her a flat look. His wife patted his shoulder in mock sympathy, and he groaned with a defeated sigh. “How’s a man to feel macho with you two constantly poking holes in his self-esteem?”

“You’ll just have to try harder, dear,” her mother told him with another pat on the shoulder.

A pinwheel of light blossomed a dozen feet away, then opened into a gateway. Calypso and Aria walked through, then stopped when they saw the others in the front yard.

Clarice studied Calypso intently, curious for any new traits that may have evolved. It suddenly dawned on her that Calypso no longer had wings. Her eyes were a deep blue and could easily pass as human. Clarice peered at her with her spiritual eyes and gasped. Their healer was still the same as before, wings and all. Her visual appearance had simply been masked so that she looked like a regular human.

“You’re a shapeshifter now!” Clarice blurted out excitedly. “You are so freaking awesome!”

Calypso smiled, her eyes amused as she observed Clarice.

“That’s Calypso?” Lexi gasped in surprise. “What…how…why…,” she broke off, spluttering as she stared at the human appearing angel with wide eyes.

“You need to use your spiritual sight to see that it’s really her,” Clarice informed her quickly. “We’ll need to get you evolved so that you can see spiritual energy later.” She paused as she listened to the helicopters and gauged their distance at about five miles away. “Aria, we need to go see who’s coming and deal with them if they are trouble. Lexi, please stay and help my parents in case anything gets through, since they’ve never been in combat before. Calypso, can you get Devon through a gateway somewhere safe in case things heat up?”

Calypso nodded and immediately blurred into the house.

Clarice studied Aria as she prepared to launch into the air. Her sister had evolved as well. She was taller now, her clothing clearly too short for her. She still had the same golden energy eyes, but there was something different about them. She looked at them through her spiritual eyes and found the difference. Aria’s spiritual eyes had an hourglass shaped energy funnel that appeared to pull something through both ends of the hourglass. It gave Clarice the impression of a coiled spring, as if her eyes were condensing energy down into a tiny pinprick.

“Tell me about your evolution while we fly,” Clarice ordered as she launched into the sky.

“I’m not sure what it does yet,” Aria replied with a frown. “It feels very dangerous though.”

“That sounds ominous,” Clarice commented, appraising her sister with a curious eye. Her nosed picked up the scent of something foul. “Hopefully it’s dangerous to demons.”

Aria sniffed the air and scrunched her nose in disgust. “So nasty,” she observed in disgust. “It stinks more than the other demons we ran into.”

“Maybe that means meaner,” Clarice answered grimly. “I don’t think this is going to be as easy as the first demon fight. These ones are probably battle class, like us.”

She studied the helicopters as the two of them flew in from above. Her spiritual eyes revealed a revolting conglomeration of writhing snakes that were melded together into human shaped bodies. The snakes were constantly slithering beneath the skin of the demons, glowing red cords of power wrapped around each of the snakes. They were less than a mile away from the helicopters when a blast of blood red spiritual energy in the shape of a web shot toward them. She immediately blasted the net with her angel fire, damaging part of it but not stopping it. She felt Aria erupt like a super nova next to her, followed by a miniscule beam of light that shot into the webbing that was nearly touching them. As soon as the beam of light touched the net, the entire thing unraveled in a flash of light.

“I’m glad you have a new trick,” Clarice told Aria in a shaky voice. “I’m pretty sure we would have been in trouble if that thing wrapped around us.”

Clarice slammed her hands together in a clap like thunder. A wave of light flew out in front of them and vaporized the helicopters. She watched in astonishment as her blast of light completely disintegrated the demons inside of the helicopters.

“That was way too easy,” Clarice muttered, scanning the area around them with all of her senses on high alert. Her spiritual eyes found nothing for as far as she could see in all directions. “There’s no way we took them out so easily. Let’s get back to the others.”

They streaked through the air and landed back on the cabin’s front lawn in front of her parents and Lexi.

“What’s wrong?” her mother asked when she saw the look on her face.

“It was too easy,” Clarice stated flatly. “There’s no way they would send demons that weak to attack us. I vaporized them with a single angel clap. There’s got to be more trouble on the way.”

“They were demons then?” her mother asked, her nose scrunched up in disgust. “Is that what that horrible smell was?”

“Yes, that is the stench of demons,” Aria confirmed with a look of revulsion on her face. “These ones felt a lot more powerful than the other ones we fought though.”

“This just doesn’t make sense,” Clarice muttered distractedly. “You can’t tell me they can’t fly like we can. Why did they need a helicopter to bring them out here? Why were they so easy to kill? How did they find the cabin, and why did they wait until now to attack? There are too many oddities in this whole attack.”

“Did they actually attack you?” their father asked with concern in his eyes.

“They shot some kind of spiritual energy net that was charged with malevolence at us,” Clarice answered, smiling at Aria. “I shot a hole in it with angel fire, but it wouldn’t have been enough without Aria. Her new ability caused the entire thing to disintegrate. I have a feeling that our powers might have been diminished significantly if we had been caught in the net.”

“What if they weren’t trying kill you?” their mother suggested, her eyes dark. “What if they were trying to capture you? It’s possible they don’t realize how powerful you have become in such a short time and thought it would be a quick grab.”

“I have a theory,” Calypso announced as she appeared in their midst. She hadn’t run over to them at angel speed. She had just appeared.

“Did you just teleport?” Lexi asked her in shock.

“Yes,” Calypso acknowledged with a quick nod. “I discovered I could do it when I made a gateway for Devon.”

“Wow...just…wow!” Clarice exclaimed in wonder. “That is so freaking cool!”

“What was your theory?” their mother asked Calypso intently.

“What if demons have been running things on earth for so long that they haven’t had anything that can actually threaten them?” Calypso asked, her brow wrinkled in thought. “What if they no longer know what battle angels are even capable of? How long has it been since there were angels on this world? Thousands of years? What if there weren’t any battle angels, and all of their experience has been geared around subduing the non-combat angel classes? They would have been essentially invulnerable to angels of other classes. As long as they were able to use these weapons for capturing them, they could hunt all of the angels down until the world was theirs for the taking.”

“If that is the case, we are back at the big question of where Calypso came from,” Aria noted with a puzzled look at the eldest angel. “Was there an angel that transformed Calypso as a child, or is she from another realm?”

“It seems plausible that a non-combat class angel might have been able to remain hidden from the demons somehow,” Clarice said thoughtfully. “Maybe that’s what the witch-hunts were really for: finding the hidden angel. If she was like Calypso and could shapeshift, she could have blended in with the other humans. She could still be around somewhere, for all we know.”

“So, we’re basically the worst possible scenario for demon kind,” their father suggested with a wolfish grin. “They’ve been the superior force due to their ability to kill or imprison angels, much like the Europeans arriving in the Americas with guns. Now it’s like the early European settlers facing off with modern soldiers with advanced weaponry.”

“That’s the possibility that feels right to me,” Calypso affirmed with a small smile. “Maybe the previous angels didn’t know the proper words to create a battle angel. Maybe they didn’t even know it existed.”

“That would certainly be our best case scenario,” Clarice breathed, feeling a sense of hope in her soul that the war in front of them wasn’t an impossible task. “These little shits are way overdue a serious ass kicking.” She looked at Calypso speculatively. “Do you really think they don’t have super powerful demons after all of the time they’ve had to evolve and become more powerful?”

“I can only go by what we’ve learned from history, which is very suspect,” Calypso replied carefully. “But are there any stories about demons having powers anywhere comparable with angels? Even if there were powerful demons among them, I’ve never heard of a story where a demon triumphed over an angel.”

“That’s because you are a bunch of ignoramuses,” a high-pitched voice that seemed tailor made to irritate people suddenly spoke up behind Calypso.

Clarice fired off a beam of angel fire before she even registered what she was shooting at. There was a small, scaly creature with nubs instead of horns that was hovering in the air behind Calypso. As soon as Clarice’s angel fire shot toward it, the creature vanished, reappearing behind her mother.

“Nice shot, you overgrown chicken,” the creature laughed derisively, disappearing as another beam of light shot toward it. “With that kind reaction time, you’re going to be drowned like kittens.”

The creature had reappeared behind Clarice this time. She didn’t even bother turning around, knowing Aria was already firing on it.

“You chumps are what has the Order of Saturn so worked up?” the creature cackled as it continued to disappear and reappear. “They’ll have to invent knew words to describe how pathetic you are.”

“Is that an imp?” Clarice asked Aria doubtfully as they continued to try and hit the squirrely little bastard.

“Ho ho, look at that, the bird brain can put two and two together,” the creature chortled disdainfully. “Somebody give the laser brain a prize!”

“I think that it thinks it’s funny,” Aria noted conversationally.

“That’s right, carrot top, I do think I’m funny,” the imp retorted spitefully. “But there aint nothing funnier than you bunch of self-righteous chicken wings trying to pull your heads out of each other’s asses. You are the most sorry excuse for angels I’ve seen in ten thousand years. You’re barely a notch above the demons on this miserable shithole, and that’s really saying something.”

“Stop firing,” Clarice told the others firmly.

“Why stop now, when you were doing so well?” the imp taunted her with another mocking laugh. “I’m sure you’ll eventually get lucky.”

The other’s stopped trying to fire on the little devil. As soon as the firing stopped, the imp stopped teleporting around. It was nearly a foot tall, with malevolent yellow goat eyes. It had the classic devil’s goatee and little hooves on its nubby legs.

“So you aren’t with the demons that were trying to capture us earlier?” Clarice asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Do I look vaporized to you, doll face?” the imp demanded with a snort.

“Either you’re dumber than you look, which is saying something, or you are purposely being obtuse,” Clarice told the imp with a slight smile. “Either way, it doesn’t reflect well on your intelligence.”

“Listen, sugar buns,” the imp said condescendingly. “There aren’t enough brains in that pouty little face of yours to comprehend just how stupid you are, but I’ll try to give you some perspective. When the jackasses that seeded this dump you call a world were still sucking on their momma’s titty, I had already watched several universes spawn and burn out. You’re about as significant as a mayfly and half as intelligent.”

“Clearly significant enough for you to focus your vast intellect on,” Clarice said dryly. “I’ve known plenty of old people who were just as stupid in their dotage as they were in their prime, grandpa.”

“The only significance you possess is that there isn’t anything more interesting than what’s going on in this dump anywhere else,” the imp spat at her. “You’ll learn soon enough how boring eternity is, pimple stain.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he vanished and did not reappear.

“So that just happened,” their mother murmured in a bemused voice, her violet eyes twinkling as she looked at Clarice. “I’m not sure if I like him or hate him, sugar buns.”

“I’m totally going to call you sugar buns from now on,” Aria chortled as she stared at Clarice. “Either that or pimple stain.”

“Dibs on pimple stain,” Clarice declared with a grin. “It’s so graphic that it tells its own story.”

“Do you think this Order of Saturn that he mentioned is the group of demons we’re up against?” Calypso asked dubiously. “I’m not sure we can trust anything an imp says.”

“It’s as good a name as any for them,” Clarice shrugged, watching Calypso interestedly. It was so strange to see a human variant of their angel. “I’d be more interested to know if we really did have this Order of Saturn worried. He made it sound like they were weaker than us, which sort of confirms what we were suggesting about these demons not actually having any powerhouses.”

“Speaking of houses,” Aria began, her face regretful. “It would seem our secrecy has been compromised. They clearly know where we are now. If we stay we are probably going to be under attack all of the time.”

“I might have a solution for that,” Calypso offered, blushing as she looked at Aria. “My teleport ability seems to be very powerful. I’m pretty sure I can teleport the whole house and some of the yard to a new location. Going by feel, it seems like I can teleport everything in a two thousand foot sphere.”

They all goggled at her, too stunned to speak. Their mother was the first to find her voice.

“You can teleport an entire property to a different location?”

“It’s more than teleport,” Calypso informed them with a happy smile. “It has the ability to do an exchange as well. So, if I were to teleport the property to a new location, we would exchange places with that land. I don’t think we would have to worry about breaking the house by moving it in such a way.”

“Just how much did you evolve?” Clarice asked faintly.

Calypso’s face turned beet red again. Her eyes darted to Aria and then back to the ground.

Clarice turned to study Aria with a slow smile on her face. Aria tried to meet her gaze, but it only lasted for a few seconds before her cheeks also lit up like a supernova and she looked away.

“I vote we find a place to move this place,” their mother came to their rescue. “I’m pretty sure Devon doesn’t want all his years of work to get blown up in a skirmish.”

“Where did you have in mind?” their father asked her curiously.

“I have no idea,” she raised her hands in a helpless gesture. “We’ll have to do some exploring. I know some angels that can cover a ridiculous amount of distance in very little time.”

“Any particular climate in mind?” Clarice inquired, watching her uncle as he walked out to see them. He had put on some nice clothes and done some grooming. His short beard was immaculate, and his eyebrows had clearly been plucked.

“Hey handsome,” their mother called out to him with a whistle. “Looking good.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” he replied dryly. “So, what happened with the helicopter threat that Calypso was getting ready to stuff me into a portal over?”

Their mother quickly filled him in on the details, as well as Calypso’s ability to relocate his cabin. He whistled in amazement as he watched Calypso.

“That would be a thing to see,” he declared with an impressed look. “I know of a place that might work. It’s over in the mountains of Southern Oregon. There aren’t really any roads that go out to the entire area, so the only people that could find it would be by air. It’s heavily forested, so it wouldn’t be very visible either. We’d have to figure something else out for internet though.”

“Calypso can make gateways,” Aria reminded him with a significant look at Calypso. “She could just open a tiny portal into a library or something. We could use their WIFI.”

“Could you really make a small gateway and leave it open like that?” he asked Calypso in amazement.

“I’m not sure,” Calypso pursed her lips thinking. “Why don’t we find out right now?”

She stared at a spot a dozen feet away from them. Clarice noticed that she didn’t need to do any arm or wing waving anymore to open a gateway. There was a ripple like a heatwave, then a small gateway opened up in the air.

“Let’s see what happens if I just leave it open,” Calypso suggested with a curious smile on her human face as she watched it.

Clarice had watched her open the portal with her spiritual vision. To her eyes it had appeared that Calypso had manipulated some of the planet’s meridians in some manner. Once the gateway was opened, her connection to it vanished.

“So, you have to both open and close the gateways or they just stay open?” Clarice asked her interestedly.

“Correct,” Calypso nodded, studying her portal with a critical eye. “I think it will dissipate over time though. Maybe a week?”

“That certainly opens some interesting possibilities,” their uncle commented thoughtfully. “You could basically snipe anyone in the world by opening a tiny gateway in their most secure locations.”

“She could probably just open the gateway in their brain if she wanted to kill someone,” Clarice pointed out dryly. “Calypso doesn’t kill though. She heals.”

Calypso nodded firmly, her eyes steady. “I’ll never harm someone unless it’s a last resort to protect someone. It would probably break me.”

“Even demons?” Aria asked tentatively.

Calypso pursed her lips as she thought. “I’m not sure. The thought of harming a human is so repugnant that I feel sick even thinking about it. Doing the same thing to a demon seems unpleasant, but not as repugnant as for a human.”

“We should probably get the house teleported as soon as possible,” their mother informed them firmly. “Calypso, do you need to fly out to the place Devon is thinking of to open a gateway there, or can you read his mind to locate it?”

“I see where he is thinking of it,” Calypso answered, turning to face away from the group. Clarice watched her manipulate the planet’s meridians again, this time on a larger scale. A full sized gateway appeared in front of her in a forested mountain. “Is this the place?”

Devon walked through the gateway, a bemused expression on his face as he moved all the way across the continent in less than a second. “This definitely looks like the place. I came here by helicopter to go fishing once. It’s between a town called Ashland and the coast of Oregon. I was thinking we could put the house right on top of that hill halfway up the mountain.”

“Okay, shall I proceed?” Calypso asked the group with a questioning look.

“Might as well,” Devon replied, walking back through the gateway.

Calypso closed her eyes and began to hum to herself. Several of her accompanying voices began to hum in harmony with her. Clarice stared in fascination as energy gathered along the planet’s meridians, building up an incredible charge. A large sphere of the energy suddenly formed a shell around them. A moment later the sky changed, and the direction of the shadows changed.

“Holy. Shit.” Clarice declared, feeling a newfound respect for their musical healer. All of the fruit trees remained throughout the yard, as well as a thousand feet of driveway. The cabin stood as solid as ever, the small waterfall on the veranda still tumbling down to the first floor and running down the yard.

“Okay, that was a resounding success,” their father congratulated Calypso with a broad grin. “Well done, Calypso.”

“Thank you,” Calypso beamed a smile at him. “I’m glad it worked. I really like Devon’s cabin and would hate to see it destroyed.”

Chapter 12

Aria watched her Uncle with a barely repressed smile as he stood nervously on the porch of Tamra’s home. She had returned with the entire clan. Calypso had opened a gateway onto the front lawn and left it open.

“That’s quite the crowd,” Tamra observed as she opened the door. Her tawny hair had been partially done up in a bun with the remainder of her hair cascading down her back and over her shoulders. Her blue eyes observed their party interestedly, pausing on her Uncle as the obvious human in their midst. After a brief inspection, a small smile of approval appeared on her face. Judging by her meridians and physical attributes, Aria guessed the woman to be in her early thirties. “I believe some introductions are in order.”

Clarice stepped forward, a barely repressed grin on her face as she began to make introductions. She introduced her parents, pointing her mother out as a world class chef who was intent on making dinner for the two mortals.

“And of course, you already know Calypso,” Clarice declared in an offhand manner, pointing to the very human looking Calypso.

Tamra stared at Calypso blankly, clearly recognizing the clothing but not the person inside of them. Calypso’s face rippled and distorted before suddenly appearing in her natural form.

“It’s a new ability I learned,” Calypso explained with an apologetic smile. “Clarice talked me into appearing in human form because she thought it would be funny to watch your face when she introduced me.”

“She’s a freaking shapeshifter now!” Clarice told Tamra proudly. “Just how cool is that?”

“I like her angel form more,” Tamra noted critically. “Don’t get me wrong, you look great as a human, but you look divine as an angel.”

Calypso blushed from the compliment. “Thank you, Tamra. I’m still learning how to change my features in the alternate form. It will probably be useful for moving freely among humans.”

“I can imagine,” Tamra commented with a half-smile.

“This is my Uncle Devon,” Clarice introduced their uncle with a with a grand gesture, her grin no longer repressed. “He’s the reason we survived long enough to become angels. Devon, this is Tamra, a world class designer.”

Devon pulled his jacket straight and smiled pleasantly at Tamra. He offered a hand to her and spoke in his deep voice, “It’s nice to meet you finally, Tamra. My nieces have spoken very highly of you.”

Tamra’s eyes were sparkling as she took his hand and shook it. “So, this is the illustrious uncle I’ve heard so much about. It’s nice to meet you, Devon. Please come in.”

Aria shared a grin with Clarice as they began entering Tamra’s house. They could both feel the chemistry between the two humans. Barring any major ideological clashes, this might just work out.

“We have a gateway on your front lawn that leads to our house in Southern Oregon,” their uncle told Tamra, his voice full of charm. “Would you care to join me for dinner on the veranda after all of the measurements are complete?”

Tamra blinked, looking nonplussed. “A gateway? Like a portal?”

“Yes, a portal,” he confirmed, nodding at Calypso. “Calypso can make gateways.”

“Wow, I feel like I fell into a fantasy world,” Tamra noted with a wondering laugh. She looked at Devon with a small smile. “I’d love to have dinner with you, Devon.”

Their mother went back to get measured first, citing her need to go prepare a dinner for the two humans.

It took half an hour to get her parents and Calypso measured and into her computer system. She showed them the progress she had made on the clothes she was making for Clarice, Lexi, and Aria, much to their delight. She had decided to make all of their clothing extra durable, since she claimed they wouldn’t know when they might end up in a conflict and probably wouldn’t have time to change. It was made from a durable fabric that wouldn’t be unusual in tactical uniforms, offering flame resistance and flexible movement while still looking stylish.

“Dinner is ready,” their mother notified the two humans after they were finished with measurements.

Devon offered his arm to Tamra as they walked across the front yard toward the gateway. The two of them had been looking at each other frequently, clearly attracted to each other. They walked through the gateway and Tamra stared around Devon’s yard and up at the cabin appreciatively.

“This place is beautiful,” Tamra complimented him with a dreamy smile. “A little slice of heaven.”

“It even has angels hanging around,” he chuckled, glancing at the angels walking beside them. “I wouldn’t be too shocked if this place ended up in the heavens someday. They just teleported the entire place across the country after the demons discovered where we were.”

Tamra came to a halt, her eyes wide. “They teleported this entire place here?”

“See what I mean?” Devon grinned wryly. “The idea of it ending up in the heavens someday isn’t so farfetched anymore. They’ll probably evolve some ability to imbue antigravity properties on objects or something weird like that.”

“Hey, that’s not weird, that’s awesome,” Clarice asserted, her expression severe. “Who wouldn’t want a floating sky palace?”

“This is so surreal,” Tamra murmured as she began walking again.

“Welcome to my life for the last week,” Devon said with a small laugh.

Aria wandered around the yard to look over the valley as her uncle and Tamra made their way up to the second floor toward the veranda. Clarice, Lexi, and Calypso joined her on the side of the house.

“We’ll give them the appearance of privacy, at least,” Aria spoke quietly. “Of course, Uncle Devon knows we can hear everything they say, but at least she’ll have the illusion of privacy.”

“Why don’t we give them some romantic music to eat with?” Clarice suggested, her eyes sparkling. “We just happen to have the world’s greatest musician here with us. The three of us could come up with something to add some ambience to the experience.” She looked over at Lexi with a mischievous smile. “And Lexi can dance for them.”

“In your dreams,” Lexi snorted a laugh.

“Well, it would be, except I don’t sleep anymore,” Clarice replied archly. “So, what do you two think?”

“Clarice, that’s brilliant!” Aria exclaimed enthusiastically. “Let’s give them the perfect dinner.”

“I’m always willing to play music,” Calypso smiled happily.

The four of them went up to the studio and grabbed a cello, harp, and violin, then made their way up to the widows walk.

“Do you just want to wing it?” Aria asked Calypso as she fit the violin under her chin.

“I’ll get a melody going on the harp,” Calypso replied, arranging her harp like an old friend. “Once you get a feel for it, you two can join in.”

XXXXX

“What kind of work did you do before angels took over your life?” Tamra asked Devon curiously. Her angelic friends had not lied about their uncle being an attractive man. He had class, wit, and of course, a deep voice. She had always wanted to start a family, but her passion for clothing design had filled her life until she realized it was getting a little late to start a family. At thirty four, she realized she had less than a decade to get her affairs in order and get the ball rolling.

“You know the people that were trying to kill Calypso and my nieces?” Devon asked with a whimsical smile. “The agency? They are who I worked for until Calypso found me.”

“Seriously?” Tamra stared at the pleasant, well mannered man in front of her, struggling to imagine him as a villain. Maybe a James Bond though. “What did you do for them?”

“Techy stuff,” he responded with a shrug. “Installing hardware in server farms to exfiltrate data to various intel agencies. The agency liked to monitor everything under the sun, so anytime a new server farm went online somewhere in the world, my team was sent out to infiltrate and install specialized hardware for silently scraping all of the data.”

“Did you retire from the agency?” Tamra asked, fascinated. “Or did you just quit when your nieces joined you with Calypso?”

“The agency doesn’t let you retire,” Devon stared at the table, his face grim. “They lure promising new college graduates into their programs with promises of adventure and serving your country. Then they pump you full of autonomous nanobots that monitor everything you do all of the time and have the ability to stop your heart if they decide you have compromised the agency in any way. Once they inject you with that poison, any hopes of having a normal life are over. At least, that was the case until Calypso came along and cleansed the nanobots out of my system.”

Tamra stared at him sympathetically, impulsively resting her hand on top of his in a comforting gesture. “That must have been a horrible realization. It sounds like slavery.”

“That’s essentially what it was,” Devon nodded, his eyes haunted. After a moment of silence, he suddenly smiled cheerfully. “I had no idea that helping my nieces hide a famous musician would result in a second chance at life. It’s a funny old world.”

“That it is,” Tamra agreed with a chuckle. “I’ve been designing costumes and custom clothing for more than fifteen years. I’ve had some pretty odd people contract me in that time with some pretty odd requests. However, when I got a call the other day from someone name Aria asking if I could make clothing to accommodate wings, I think it topped all of the other requests. It’s a rare enough name that I guessed who she was right at the start of the call. It really is a funny old world.”

They both heard the sound of a harp begin playing from somewhere up above them. Tamra had an involuntary shiver as the haunting melody pinged her soul.

“I do believe we get music with our dinner,” Devon noted with a pleased grin. “From the greatest musician on earth, no less.”

Tamra nodded mutely, captivated by the beautiful melody. A moment later a cello began weaving its own story into the melody, quickly followed by a violin. She listened in awe as the three instruments serenaded the air around them, poignant and heartening at the same time. The magic really started when Calypso’s voice began dancing with the melody of the violin, filled with a rich vibrance beyond human limits. Additional voices began harmonizing with her voice and she thought it was the other angels at first. As she listened closer she realized they were all Calypso, and they seemed to be coming from the air all around them. She felt a tear running down her cheek as her soul seemed to rise up from her core to better observe the sublime sounds caressing the space around them. Two additional voices joined in, harmonizing perfectly with Calypso. Tamra hadn’t thought the song could become more poignant, but as the other two angels joined their voices to Calypso’s it was like the world itself stopped to listen. She couldn’t move for fear of defiling the air with vulgar sounds that would detract from the celestial notes warping reality around them.

As the notes faded away, reality slowly reasserted itself and Tamra became aware of her surroundings again. Her cheeks were damp from tears. She looked across the table at Devon and saw his own wet cheeks as he smiled at her companionably.

“That’s one of the other perks of hosting angels at your house,” Devon commented as he wiped his eyes with a napkin. “It feels like your soul is being supercharged with emotional energy when they play.”

“I knew Calypso was an amazing musician, but I had no idea your nieces were also musicians,” Tamra breathed in awe. “They are amazing.”

“They were both healed by Calypso when they were ten years old,” Devon told her as he put the napkin back down. “They would have both died without her. Of course, they didn’t know who she was back then. I think many of the children that Calypso healed with her music have likely grown up to be talented musicians in their own right. I think she imprinted music on their souls.”

XXXXX

“A single tear rolls down my scaly cheek,” an irritating voice jeered from the air next to the widows walk. “Who do you hate so much that you would torture them with that horrendous noise?”

“Hey, the pimple stain’s back!” Clarice cried out cheerfully.

The imp narrowed his goat eyes at her as he heard his own insult appropriated. “I knew you were stupid, but the lack of originality in your insults really spells out how pathetic you giant chickens really are.”

Clarice turned to Aria, her eyes wide. “Bok bok?”

“Bok bok bok,” Aria agreed with a nod.

“Bok bok bok?” Clarice asked Lexi.

“Bock bock bock bock bock bock,” Lexi shook her head vigorously.

“What the hell’s the matter with you boneheads?” The imp demanded irritably. “You really were scraped from the bottom of the barrel, weren’t you?”

“Bok bok,” Clarice retorted with fierce scowl.

“You’re not giant chickens,” the imp growled in disgust. “That would be insulting to chickens. You’re all fundamentally and irredeemably retarded.”

“Bok Bok Bok,” Aria nodded her agreement.

“Why are you here?” Calypso asked the disgruntled imp curiously. “Is this planet truly more entertaining than anywhere else in the universe?”

“I can guarantee it’s the only planet where angels talk like chickens,” the imp seethed, glaring malevolently at the other three angels.

“Bok?” Clarice asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Do you know where angels come from?” Calypso asked the imp hopefully.

“They sprout from cow shit after a rain storm,” the imp snapped, miming a person squatting to drop a deuce. “What kind of asinine question is that anyway? You clearly converted several humans into angels, so you know damn well where they come from, you feather brained platypus.”

“That’s where they came from,” Calypso nodded at the others. “But where did I come from? Are all angels just former humans?”

“Do all chickens come from eggs?” he demanded obnoxiously. “Where the hell else would angels come from? Seriously, you are the dumbest angels I’ve ever met, and that is really saying something.”

“Bok?” Clarice croaked with a injured expression.

“Well do you know if there really are different classes of angels?” Calypso asked, her calm never wavering. “I’m the only healer, and it would be nice to know how to make something besides battle angels.”

“A healer? You?” The imp roared with laughter, rolling around in the air, pounding the imaginary ground with a tiny fist. “You actually think that you’re a healer?” he continued cackling as Calypso stared at him uncertainly.

“If I’m not a healer then what am I?” Calypso asked challengingly.

“Too stupid to tie your own shoes from what I can see,” the imp snorted, still watching her with unholy mirth.

“It’s okay if you don’t know,” Calypso told him quickly, sympathy in her eyes. “You just seemed so knowledgeable that I thought you might know.”

“Why, in all that is infernal and holy, would you think you are a weak brained healer?” the imp snarled, it’s eyes growing even more disdainful. “How many healers go around singing songs to heal people? Do you see these stupid chickens singing to blast demons with their blasters? Warriors kill. Healers heal. What the flying fudge monkey do you think sings, you pustulant wart on a frogs ass? How have you survived so long with this level of ignorance? I’ve never felt embarrassed in my life, but I’m feeling embarrassed for you right now, you flying flock of flatulent feces.”

“A bard?” Clarice demanded, her eyes disbelieving. “You’re saying she’s a freaking bard?”

The imp slowly turned to look at her, it’s eyes wide with amazement. “Behold, it speaks! A talking chicken. Bok flocking bok, you uneducated mendicants.”

With a final snort, the imp vanished.

“I do so enjoy these visits,” Aria said sarcastically. “What the hell does he keep popping into our business for anyway? He can’t be that bored.”

“He likes Calypso’s music,” Clarice grinned triumphantly. “The little bastard actually wants to hear her music.”

“That’s not the impression I got,” Lexi responded dubiously. “He seemed pretty critical of it to me. He called it horrendous noise.”

“Of course he did,” Clarice laughed delightedly. “Imps can’t admit to loving an angel’s music. I’ll bet you that is the whole reason he’s on this world at all, if he really can go anywhere else in the cosmos. I’ll bet it stirs emotions in his evil little soul.”

“I got a similar impression,” Calypso admitted, her eyes troubled. “What is this bard class that you think I am, Clarice?”

“It’s like a jack of all trades in fantasy lore,” Clarice explained, her eyes excited. “They are charismatic and social. They can use their music to do all of the things the other classes can do. For instance, healing, teleporting, cleansing nanobots, strengthening morale, bringing people back from the dead. They are lore holders too, with access to hidden knowledge. That would explain your intuition and the sense that you keep almost remembering something. You are easily the most powerful class of angel due to your versatility. If that bard class really is a thing, then that is definitely what you are. In retrospect it should have been obvious. You’re the most talented musician in the world and you have been obsessed with music your entire life.”

“You’re right,” Aria agreed eagerly, her own eyes sparkling. “That little punk of an imp just gave us a huge advantage. Knowing you are a bard rather than a healer means we have a much smaller subset of phrases to try to activate the class. It will almost certainly be something music related.”

“He also confirmed that she must have been a human at one point,” Clarice added contemplatively. “If angels can really only be made from humans, then she must have had an angel involved with her transformation. I wonder if he’s purposely being helpful, in his own irascible way, or if it’s just slipping out.”

“Why would an imp help an angel?” Lexi asked doubtfully. “Aren’t we immortal enemies?”

“Probably,” Clarice acknowledged with a shrug. “But that doesn’t mean some of us don’t have a change of heart somewhere down the line. If he’s really as old as he says he is, he might be bored of the dark side.”

“That’s a pretty big leap,” Aria argued, frowning in thought. “I think he could still be all for hellfire and brimstone but have a soft spot for transcendent music.”

“Maybe,” Clarice frowned pensively. “I think there’s a more complex story behind the little bastard than a simple fondness for beautiful music or being disenfranchised with dark deeds.”

“I’m totally going to start a support group called DDDD,” Aria declared with a grin. “For Demons Disenfranchised with Dark Deeds.”

“I’m not sure that’s going to roll off of the tongue very well,” Clarice observed critically. “’I’m a member of D-D-D-D’ just sounds like you have a stutter. Maybe shorten it to DDD and just call it the Triple D’s.”

“There’s only one thing people are going to associate with a group named Triple D’s,” Aria told her pointedly. “Sounds more like a Valkyrie support group.”

“Ah yeah…” Clarice admitted with a rueful smile. “I suppose quadruple D’s wouldn’t be any better.”

“Eternity is never going to get boring with those two around,” Aria heard their mother tell their father with a chuckle. She shared a grin with Clarice, remembering that there wasn’t anything private in a house full of angels.

She had been keeping track of her uncle and Tamra’s conversation in the background. The two humans were discussing increasingly personal memories and ideas as they ate their dinner. Aria felt a sense of joy as she witnessed the beginning of a promising relationship.

“I think it’s time to go visit Jason and Julia,” Clarice declared, flexing her wings. “We are running a little behind. He’s over at MIT, so we’re probably going to need to find a way to talk with him in person without putting him in danger once we are gone. It’s too bad we don’t all have Calypso’s shapeshifter ability.”

“Why don’t I just open a portal and invite him to come here?” Calypso suggested. She was absently stroking the frame of her harp like a favorite pet.

Clarice facepalmed with a groan. “I’m such an idiot.”

“No, you’re not,” Calypso defended her fondly. “It’s still a new ability. It might take a day or two for it to factor into our strategic plans naturally.”

“Okay, so we portal into Jason’s dorm room house and whisk him over here?” Aria asked, repressing a grin of anticipation at what she imagined his face would look like when a portal appeared in his room.

“Yeah, but how are you going to know where to open a gateway to?” Clarice asked Calypso curiously. “Do you just intuitively feel where you want the other side to go? How does it work?”

“There is a kind of information layer to reality where all of the meridians and ley lines intersect,” Calypso explained slowly. “Just like everyone’s name is on their aura, these lines of energy potential that I use to open gateways are layered with information that maps their location between the spiritual and physical realm. I can feel where Jason is because I’ve observed his aura before. It’s kind of like how spiders can locate flies are based on perturbations in the web. I can feel his energy signature when I put my metaphorical ear against one of the planet’s meridians.”

“You’re getting pretty close to the three O’s of divinity with this omniscience,” Clarice warned Calypso with a mischievous smile. “You just about have omnipresence and omniscience down. Once you become omnipotent we are going to have to start building temples for you.”

“This is hardly omniscience,” Calypso shook her head wryly, her swirling eyes watching the other angel wryly.

“Before we open a gateway into where Jason is at, maybe we should start with one of those micro-gateways,” Clarice suggested, glancing at Aria and Lexi with a calculating gaze. “We don’t really want to just walk in on somebody without warning. We can take a quick peak, then say hello before opening it all of the way.”

“Ah, I see,” Aria tilted her head back with a knowing grin. “You’re worried we’ll pop into visit him while he’s in the bathroom.”

“Or shagging someone,” Clarice added dryly, rolling her eyes. “Yes, I’m attempting to respect some privacy here.”

Calypso nodded, her face taking on a more intense expression. A moment later a gateway about three inches in diameter opened up above Jason. He was at his computer typing furiously.

“Hey Jason, are you available for a quick visit?” Clarice asked, unable to keep the grin out of her voice.

“You’re a bad angel,” Aria whispered accusingly.

Jason leapt out of his chair and spun around. His eyes were wild as he searched all around his small apartment. “Who’s there?”

“I’m your fairy god mother,” Clarice answered, barely able to restrain her laughter. “I’m here to grant you three wishes.”

Jason’s eyes narrowed as he heard the clear mirth in her voice. He continued turning around, looking for any sign of where the voice could be coming from.”

“I’m sorry, Jason,” Calypso’s voice spoke up sympathetically. “Clarice is a bit of a tease. Do you mind if we open a gateway into your room?”

“Calypso?” Jason asked, clearly recognizing the voice. “A gateway? Like a portal?”

“Maybe we should start calling them portals,” Clarice muttered with a sigh.

“Yes, a portal,” Calypso confirmed patiently, her own lips curving up at the corners.

“Yeah, I guess,” Jason stammered, looking dazed. “Portal away.”

A new gateway opened up a few feet away from Jason. He stared back at the four angels on the other side of the portal in shock.

“We had some things we wanted to discuss, but it would be easier in person,” Calypso explained gently. “Would you like to join us over here? It would be more secure than at your apartment.”

Jason stared at Calypso in all of her glory, seeming unable to make his mouth or legs move. Clarice felt a little bad for him. Calypso really was awe inspiring.

Calypso stepped through the portal and took his hand, guiding the shell shocked young man through the portal.

“He’s never going to wash that hand again,” Clarice told Aria and Lexi sadly. “Make sure to only shake his left hand in the future, should the option arise.”

Lexi giggled, her eyes staring at Clarice with something close to idol worship. She had clearly placed Clarice in the category of a big sister figure in her life now. Aria was glad that she had formed an attachment so quickly after her ordeal. Clarice had always joked around about Aria being the smart one with a physicists degree, but Aria knew her mischievous sister was the smarter of the two of them by a wide margin.

“Don’t pay any attention to Clarice,” Calypso warned Jason with an amused glance at Clarice. “Like I said earlier, she’s a bit of a tease.”

Jason stared at Aria and Clarice, his eyes studying their features intently. “Are you shape shifters or something? You definitely didn’t look like this in the videos I’ve seen on YouTube.”

“Funny that you mention that…” Clarice grinned, looking at Calypso. “You wanna show him?”

Calypso tilted her head at Clarice, clearly wondering why that mattered since Aria and Clarice were not shapeshifters.

“Humor me,” Clarice pleaded, her eyes sparkling.

Calypso shook her head with a sigh, then distorted as she shifted into her human form.

“Holy shit!” Jason swore, staring at Calypso in amazement. “You really are shapeshifters!”

“I’m a shapeshifter,” Calypso confirmed, casting an amused glance at Clarice, who was giggling at Jason’s reaction. “Those three are not shapeshifters though.”

“Calypso turned us into angels,” Aria told him simply. “She can turn anyone into an angel, pretty much.”

Jason gaped at her, his eyes wide. “What? I thought angels were another species. How does a person just get turned into an angel?”

“There are ways,” Aria answered vaguely.

“Have you had any luck making contacts with other former patients?” Calypso inquired as she let her human façade fade away so that he was talking to her angel form again.

“Yes,” Jason nodded, an eager smile appearing on his face. “I’ve started some low key chat boards on some TOR nodes where we can discuss ideas without being flagged by this shadow agency you warned me about. There are about four thousand of us now. It didn’t take long at all to recruit people. It was basically like a pyramid scheme. Each person we recruited went out and recruited more. I have the full patient list that Julia gave me available on the TOR site. People have been getting antsy for action after seeing all of the news about angels recently. Someone was even claiming that you have been fighting demons. I would have blown that off as nonsense a week ago, but it’s hard to rule anything out these days.”

He finished with a questioning look on his face.

“We have been fighting demons,” Calypso confirmed, glancing at the other three angels. “Or more accurately, they have been fighting demons.”

“We believe demons have infiltrated every influential institution and are controlling most of the activities in the world,” Aria told him grimly. “They are probably behind the bulk of the human trafficking incidents throughout the world. We have rescued some of the children they were torturing, but we suspect there are far more.”

“Why don’t you come inside and sit down,” Calypso suggested solicitously, nodding toward the cabin. “We can get you some refreshments while we dive into the details.”

He nodded slowly, his eyes looking a little wild. Calypso stepped up to him and pulled him into a warm embrace, flooding his soul with love. “It’s really good to see you again, Jason.”

He sucked in a deep breath as the emotional overload hit him. His hands froze as they bumped against her wings, reminding him that he was hugging an angel.

As she released him, he stared at her in awe, the nervous energy vanishing from his eyes.

“You really are an angel,” he said quietly, wonder in his eyes. “I was starting to convince myself that you were just aliens with the appearance of angels. I don’t think aliens could imitate love like that though.”

Calypso nodded, her eyes filled with affection as she smiled at him. She nodded her head toward the cabin, and he gave himself a shake, following her up the path to the front door.

“We probably need to make another grocery trip soon,” Aria noted as they entered the living room. “Of course, now that we only have one person to feed regularly it should last longer.”

“So, this is Jason,” Aria’s mother had blurred into the room as soon as they entered, eliciting a startled scream from Jason. “Give me a minute to whip something up for him.”

She exited the room as quickly as she appeared, leaving a shocked Jason in a half sitting position above one of the chairs.

“Angels are kind of fast,” Clarice told him with a smirk. “My mom is a world class chef, so consider yourself lucky. Whatever she’s making you is going to be ridiculously delicious.”

“Your mom?” he exclaimed disbelievingly. “She’s way too young to be your mom.”

“Angels are immortal,” Clarice informed him with a shrug. “Who ever heard of an old angel?”

He slowly finished sitting down, staring at Clarice curiously. “Is everyone in your family an angel now?”

“Almost,” Clarice nodded, tilting her head and smiling mysteriously. “We’ve got one holdout that wants to have a family of his own first. We hooked him up with a date to get the ball rolling. He’s upstairs having a romantic dinner right now.”

“Where are we, anyway?” Jason asked curiously. “Are we still on earth?”

Aria shared a look with Clarice and they both started laughing.

“Yes, Jason,” Calypso answered with a reproachful look at Aria and Clarice. “We’re in Oregon.”

“So…on the other side of the continent,” Jason noted with a laugh just short of hysterical. “No big deal.”

“How’s the hacking project coming along?” Calypso asked, clearly trying to steer the conversation somewhere he would feel more comfortable.

“Pretty well, actually,” he grinned, regaining some of his former energy. “I linked up with a few dozen penetration testers to help with the project. We should have a proof of concept ready to execute in about a week.”

“What kind of testers?” Clarice demanded, her lips quivering as she tried not to smile.

He stared at her blankly for a moment, then his face flushed bright red.

“Um, uh, that’s just a technical term for, uh, people that, um, try to hack computer networks and um, devices and such,” he stammered, struggling to finish under Clarice’s suggestive leer.

“You really are a very bad angel,” Aria scolded her sister while trying to suppress her own grin.

Lexi had to leave the room, her shoulders shaking as she tried to stop laughing.

Calypso had her face in her hands as Clarice continued grinning at Jason suggestively. “Remind me to have these meetings without Clarice in the future.”

“That was hurtful,” Clarice declared in an injured tone.

“I’m sorry, Jason,” Calypso apologized weakly, her eyes resigned. “We’ve been a little isolated, so I think she has some repressed mischief that’s been waiting to find a target.”

“Let’s just move past this awkward moment,” Aria suggested firmly, nudging Clarice pointedly. “What do you need from us to help facilitate your plans? Perhaps we should give you a rundown on our abilities first.”

“Like making portals?” Jason asked weakly.

“Yeah, like making portals,” Aria agreed with a nod. “Calypso is the real powerhouse when it comes to abilities. The rest of us are more combat focused, so if you run into any trouble we’ll be the ones to help. Angels are immortal in every sense of the word. We can’t take damage. Bullets, knives, nuclear warheads…none of those things can hurt us. We are significantly stronger and faster than humans. It would take us less than a few seconds to fly around the world if we pushed ourselves, so if you are ever in danger and can contact us, we can be there almost immediately. As you probably saw online, we can shoot beams of light out of our eyes that we call angel fire. It’s a very surgical method for fighting, but we can also destroy things like mountain ranges if necessary.”

He stared at her as she finished, clearly waiting for a smile or something to indicate she was being facetious. When she just continued to stare at him, he swallowed. “Like seriously? You can blow up mountains?”

“Yes, seriously,” Aria nodded confidently. “When we first became angels we only had basic immortality, speed, and heightened senses. Certain emotional events trigger ability evolutions in angels. We are much more powerful than we were a few days ago. We’re not sure where it will end if we are this powerful in less than a week. However, there are demons out there who are far older than us who have been learning how to use their powers far longer than us. We may need more angels in this fight against demons. We would primarily be looking at people Calypso has healed at the hospitals as candidates. As you can imagine, this is a lot of power to trust a person with. We can’t risk raising the wrong kind of human to an angel or the fallout could be catastrophic. We think Calypso left her mark on our souls when she healed us, possibly influencing the kind of people we turned out to be.”

“I could believe that,” Jason agreed, nodding slowly. He watched her in fascination, clearly trying to isolate the changes she had undergone since leaving mortality behind. Her eyes had grown larger and changed to a shimmery gold hue. Her face had become softer and more feminine. Then there were the wings.

“There are other concerns with taking down the demons,” Clarice spoke up, all traces of levity gone. “They’ve been running the world for quite a while now. They have become integral in the way things operate. Depending on how hard we hit them, it could collapse commerce, supply chains, transportation, and result in economic collapse. That would result in possibly billions of deaths. We have to come up with a long term plan to deal with them that doesn’t result in planetary destruction or the collapse of civilization. That’s where your network is going to shine. We need it to grow, and fast. We need to prepare people to fill key roles throughout the world to maintain functioning governments while we purge demon kind from this world.”

Jason blanched as she listed the dire possibilities of mishandling their mission. He licked suddenly dry lips as he looked at her with anxious eyes. “No pressure then.”

“Exactly,” Clarice smiled, her eyes sparkling with amusement. “It will be easy peezy lemon squeezy. We have time still. We aren’t going to go on a rampage and wipe out all of the demons in a week. We won’t be doing that for at least two weeks.”

He squinted at her suspiciously, clearly catching on to her exaggerated humor.

“We don’t have a timetable for when we are going to assault the demons,” Aria assured him with a flat look at Clarice. “We need to gather a lot more intel on the placement and operations of the demons running everything.”

“Where have the angels been all of this time?” Jason asked, his brows creased. “How did the demons get so powerful?”

“We don’t know,” Calypso sighed, glancing at Aria and Clarice and smiling. “We haven’t told very many people what I’m about to tell you. When Aria and Clarice returned to see me at the hospital the day before my identity was revealed, I didn’t know that I wasn’t human. I was so focused on music and healing children that I didn’t realize how much time was passing.”

Calypso explained her childhood and the following years visiting hospitals and composing music in all of her spare time. When she told him she was unaware that she was over a hundred years old and didn’t realize she still looked young when the two sisters visited her, he shook his head in amazement.

“You seriously didn’t realize that you looked like you were barely out of high school for over a hundred years?” he asked with a bewildered expression. “I’m not trying to be rude, but that is some pretty crazy levels of obliviousness.”

Calypso laughed at his description but nodded. “I’ve heard Aria and Clarice make that assessment several times. Angels don’t eat, sleep, feel pain, or heat and cold. I have no memory of ever being human, so I didn’t understand how different I was. Without those distractions I was able to become super focused on my purpose in life, of making music and healing children. I had no idea that I was invulnerable, super-fast, super strong, and had far better senses than humans.”

“And you were the only angel on earth until you found a way to make more angels?” Jason asked curiously.

“I don’t know,” Calypso frowned, her eyes uncertain. “We are fairly certain that angels are always created from former humans, though we are mostly fumbling our way through this. That means there must have been an angel that was responsible for my transformation. I have no recollection of anything before becoming an angel at five years old though, so I don’t know if it was an angel that was responsible for my change, or if it was something else. However, we have a theory that there haven’t been any battle class angels on earth for thousands of years. They are the only angels that can kill demons that we know of. Without battle class angels to fight demons, the other angels would have been at a disadvantage. We don’t know if they are still alive and imprisoned somewhere, or if they were killed somehow.”

“We think things like the witch hunts were actually orchestrated by the demons searching for angels who had evaded capture or death up to that time,” Clarice explained, her face once again serious. “We have reason to believe that the demons on earth right now are outclassed by battle angels. We’ve had two encounters with them, and we’ve wiped the floor with them both times. The second time they were clearly more powerful, and they still didn’t stand a chance. We aren’t sure why we are so much more powerful than they are, but it presents an opportunity to clean their taint from the earth if we plan this out right.”

“If battle class angels are the ones with the power to defeat the demons, why did you say Calypso was the powerhouse of abilities earlier?” Jason asked shrewdly. “Or is she battle class as well?”

“We believe she is the equivalent of a bard class,” Clarice answered, her voice uncertain. “We aren’t a hundred percent sure though. She has been gaining new abilities daily, like telepathy, teleportation, shapeshifting, and of course her ability to heal and resurrect people. While she won’t be involved in any fighting, she is the key to making our plans successful. Her ability to motivate and galvanize the population will be a large part of our plan.”

Their mother came back into the room at a normal pace with a tray of spinach artichoke dip and naan. She hooked her foot around a heavy coffee table and effortlessly moved it over to Jason and set the platter down onto it.

“You’re too young to not be hungry all of the time still, so eat up,” their mother told him with a motherly smile that looked entirely too weird on a face so young. “What would you like to drink? We have water, coffee, and various fruit juices.”

“A coffee would be awesome,” Jason smiled gratefully. “Thank you so much, um…”

“I’m Emily,” their mother introduced herself with another smile. “I’ll get you that coffee.”

As she walked out of the room, Jason looked at Calypso inquiringly. “Okay, so what now? You just want me to work on recruiting as many people as possible into the network?”

“We should definitely come up with a better name than the network,” Clarice grumbled plaintively. “It’s almost as bad as ‘The Agency’.” She put finger quotes around the words.

“Yes, I think recruiting should be the top priority,” Calypso nodded. “But if you can offload that onto other people and continue working on the hacking project that would also be helpful. It might just cripple the agency if we can strip them of a large portion of their slave labor force. I would still like to play for the children at the hospitals, but I think Julia and her team can manage that project.”

Jason nodded, ignoring his food while he stared back at them. Aria remembered how hard it was not to stare at Calypso in the first few days of their time together. It was still hard not to stare at her. While Clarice and the other angels were beautiful and amazing, there was a divine quality about Calypso that went beyond the normal angelic captivation, a kind of innocence and love that drew the eye. She wondered if it was the charisma trait of her angel class.

Their mother returned with a mug of coffee and set it down in front of Jason with another brief smile.

“Thank you,” Jason sighed gratefully, immediately taking a sip of the coffee.

“Jason, do you mind if we leave you alone for a few minutes?” Calypso asked diffidently. “I need to have a private word with the rest of the group.”

“No, not at all,” Jason assured her effusively.

Aria raised an eyebrow at Clarice as they followed Calypso out of the house, curious what their healer…their bard?... wanted to talk about in private.

“You’re such a bleeding heart,” Clarice accused Calypso with an amused smile.

“What am I missing?” Aria asked in confusion.

“Jason is too self-conscious to eat in front of us,” Calypso explained with a fond smile. “I thought we could give him a little privacy to eat in peace. It would be a shame for something Emily made to go to waste.”

Their mother gave Calypso an appreciative smile at the compliment.

“How did you know that’s what Calypso wanted to leave for?” Aria asked with a disgruntled frown. Usually, she was the one that could read people.

“I’ve dealt with guys like Jason before,” Clarice responded with a chuckle. “He’s too self-conscious to breathe too loudly in front of four gorgeous women. He certainly wasn’t going to be the only one eating in front of us.”

“I know Calypso could read his mind to find that out,” Aria said, looking at Clarice pointedly. “But how did you know that was why Calypso wanted to come out here to talk?”

“Because I knew Calypso could read his mind,” Clarice replied with a shrug. “Simple deduction, Watson.”

“Sometimes you’re so clever I want to puke,” Aria declared airily.

“Except you can’t puke,” Clarice pointed out critically. “You don’t have a stomach, remember?”

“See what I mean?” Aria threw her hands up in the air with a long suffering sigh.

Clarice and the other angels laughed, their mother nodding her agreement.

“Calypso, what do you make of Jason?” Clarice asked shrewdly. “You can see inside his mind. Is he responsible angel material?”

“I believe so, eventually,” Calypso nodded confidently. “He has a pure heart and a desire to do good in the face of adversity.”

“He would definitely get a lot more done if he didn’t need to sleep,” Aria noted.

“He’s a bit young though,” Calypso pointed out hesitantly. “He still has a lot of time to continue growing mentally before I would really want to put this kind of power into his hands. Then there is the family aspect we still need to consider. He may want children.”

“You dumbasses think angels can’t have children?” a familiar grating voice demanded incredulously. “Just when I think you can’t get dumber you prove me wrong.”

Aria turned to face the obnoxious imp. He was floating between them and the house with a scornful expression.

“Are you telling me I still have to worry about getting pregnant?” their mother demanded, aghast.

The imp facepalmed with a groan. “So. Damn. Stupid.”

“I guess Devon doesn’t have to wait to start a family after all,” their mother muttered in a disgruntled voice.

“Angels can’t make angel babies, you drinkers of yack piss,” the imp lectured her in an insulting tone. “Angels and humans are another matter. You should definitely make some more mutts. There’s nothing more sporting than a half-human. It takes almost no time at all to turn them into a demon.”

“You’re talking about Nephilim,” their mother gasped, her eyes widening. “Male angels with female humans.”

“Somebody bake this lady a cake,” the imp crowed triumphantly. “She’s got the brains of a jack ass.”

“What are you doing here, Grodek,” a voice chided from several hundred yards away. An angel’s voice. “Did you forget what happened last time you came to this world?”

Chapter 13

Aria stared at the woman walking up the remains of the driveway toward them. She was clearly an angel, but she lacked wings. When she looked with her spiritual sight, it became apparent that the angel was using the same shapeshifting trick that Calypso used. She was at least a foot taller than Aria and walked with the carefree gate of someone who didn’t have anywhere to be. She wore contemporary clothing, just a t-shirt and jeans. Her fake image projected that of a thirty year old woman while her spiritual sight revealed the same eternal youth the rest of them had.

“Did you forget to pull your head out of your ass,” the imp snapped at the new arrival. “Or is that your natural way of walking now.”

“Your honeyed words are like music to my ears, Grodek,” the mystery angel declared magnanimously. “I’ve really missed your verbal abuse. The demons here just can’t seem to grasp the nuance of visually descriptive insults.”

“Who are you?” Clarice asked the woman warily.

“This is the jackass in charge of mismanaging this pigpen of a world,” the imp answered for her with a nasty laugh. “It’s been a long time since a Principality has fallen so low that even the weak ass demons on this world threaten her existence. You won’t find a bigger failure in all of this universe.”

“You just lack vision,” the woman murmured, her mouth smiling while her eyes remained as cold as an arctic gale. “There is a certain poetry to redeeming a world from complete and utter ruin.”

“Is that what you have convinced yourself that you are doing?” the imp snickered, shaking his head in disgust. “Whatever you have to tell yourself in order to look into the mirror without weeping.”

“The bar for failure has been set pretty low, as you may recall,” the woman retorted acidly. “The higher the fall and all that jazz.”

“Okay, who the hell are you?” Clarice asked, clearly losing her patience. She was scowling at the new arrival, which was an odd thing to see on such a beautiful face. “Are you seriously the one responsible for letting demons take over the world?”

“I know you,” Calypso whispered, her eyes wide with shock as she stared at the woman with sudden recognition. “You were the one who saved me from the demons.”

“Well, isn’t this nice?” Grodek declared sarcastically. “A heartwarming reunion. You finally met your maker.”

“I remember…” Calypso stared at the woman, her eyes wide and filled with horror.

Aria stared at Calypso in concern as she began trembling violently. She closed her eyes, and quicksilver tears began streaming down her face. Clarice moved forward quickly and pulled her into a hug, pouring all of her channeled love and comfort into the distraught angel. Aria quickly joined her, redirecting all of the positive energy from her meridians into Calypso. She moaned despairingly as she seemed to be undergoing some kind of full memory recall of a trauma too painful to survive. She felt their mother and Lexi join them in pouring their positive energy into Calypso. After several minutes that seemed to go on forever, Calypso slowly stopped shaking and began to calm down, drinking in the positive energy like a starving plant sucking in water.

“We’re here for you, Calypso,” Aria told her gently.

They stood holding Calypso for almost an hour as she continued to process her emotional turmoil. It ended with a brilliant flash as her entire body was seared by a ray of light that opened up from the sky above her. Aria and the others drew back from the brilliant flash. She instinctively knew that the power in that beam of light would destroy her angel body. As the light dimmed, Calypso stood up straight, her back no longer supporting one set of wings, but two. She smiled at them tremulously, her eyes filled with love as she stared at them gratefully.

“So, this is what the difference between angel and human feels like,” she murmured, her eyes wide with wonder. “No wonder you were all marveling so much at the change.”

“You remember now?” Aria asked her tentatively. “Being human?”

“Yes,” Calypso nodded sadly. “I was in the hands of demons from six months of age until I was five, when Carcelonia rescued me. She wiped my memory so that I wouldn’t have to spend eternity with those horrors in my mind.”

Aria turned to look at Carcelonia. She had been waiting patiently, a look of supreme satisfaction on her face. She had silky straight golden hair down to her waist. Her true eyes were a brilliant white, shining out like beams from a spotlight. The eyes that appeared on the shapeshifter façade were a light blue.

Aria had vaguely been aware of the moment when Grodek had vanished, shortly after Calypso’s breakdown. She had also noticed Jason finally getting antsy enough to come outside to find them. He was watching the group with concern as he witnessed Calypso’s meltdown.

“Thank you for saving Calypso,” Aria said gratefully, studying her closely. She had the impression that Carcelonia was extremely pleased with herself.

“I was beginning to think that she would never come into her own,” Carcelonia noted with a shake of her head. “I’ve waited a hundred years for her to find herself. I think it was worth the wait though.”

“Why did you leave her alone to find her own way?” Clarice asked pointedly. “You could have told her she was an angel from the moment she transformed. You could have been teaching her to evolve this entire time as well.”

“There were…complications,” Carcelonia answered with a sigh. “First of all, if she saw me it would have triggered an instant memory recall, which would have been very bad. Second, I had to lead an army of angry demons away from her. You think angels and demons are dichotomous entities, but nothing is ever that simple.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Clarice asked suspiciously. “Demons are monsters preying on the weak and vulnerable. Are you telling me angels aren’t that different?”

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you,” Carcelonia confirmed with an unpleasant smile. “You think your friend Grodek is pure evil? Why do you tolerate him at all if you believe him to be an evil monster?”

Clarice scowled but didn’t answer.

“He doesn’t seem to be threatening,” Aria answered slowly. “And we’ve been able to get some useful information out of him.”

“Exactly,” Carcelonia smiled in satisfaction. “Not all angels are good, and not all demons are bad. If you try to exterminate every demon on earth, you’ll be destroying some demons that have more compassion than many angels. Demons are in charge of almost every government on this world, and yet you were living an oblivious life before you learned that they existed. Do you really think that life would be so cushy if demons were all malevolent creatures of pure evil?”

Aria shared a troubled look with her group. Could there really be such a thing as a good demon?

“Tell that to the forty kids we rescued who were being tortured by demons,” Clarice growled angrily. “Or tell that to Calypso, who you apparently saved from the same monsters.”

“There are certainly plenty of demons who are pure evil,” Carcelonia admitted with a frown. “But you are making broad judgements based on generalizations. Do you know where demons come from?”

“Biblically, they are fallen angels,” their mother replied, her violet eyes troubled.

“Any of you could become demons, under the wrong circumstances,” Carcelonia informed them levelly. “If you are ever captured by the demons running this world, you will become demons. With enough time, they can change the most virtuous angel into a demon.”

Aria blanched, sharing a worried look with Clarice. She remembered vividly the dark net the demons had shot at them in an attempt to capture them. They weren’t trying to kill them; they wanted them alive.

“What about the reverse?” their mother asked with a raised eyebrow. “Can demons become angels?”

“No, they cannot,” Carcelonia shook her head regretfully. “There has never been a case of a demon transforming back into an angel. If it were possible, there would be a lot less demons. Many angels who have been broken and consigned to the life of a demon are unwilling demons. Unfortunately, their will is not their own. They are forever bound to their demon lord. Their desires are altered and their personalities stripped. However, some of them contain a remnant of their former personalities. It is these demons who fight against their natural instincts and strive to retain their former code of ethics and morals.”

“And you’re saying that this world is run by these ‘moral and ethical’ demons?” Clarice asked doubtfully.

“To a degree, yes,” Carcelonia confirmed with a nod. “The more powerful demons dwell in other worlds, where they oversee the harvest of agonite from humans with a higher emotional capacity than humans here. Earth is a low yield world due to humans’ limited emotional development. However, the demons here are still beholden to their demon lord and are required to produce some yield.”

“What’s agonite?” Lexi inquired with a puzzled crease to her brow.

“It’s a drug for demons produced in the blood of sentient species when they are in agony,” Carcelonia answered grimly. “Unlike mortals, there are very few things that can alter the conscious state of an immortal. Agonite is one of them, allowing a demon to feel a temporary sense of power. Power is the core of what drives demons, so a drug that can simulate that experience is highly prized.”

“If I was forced to torture children due to a compulsion bond to a demon lord, I would prefer death,” Clarice declared coldly. “If these demons have no choice but to perform these dark deeds, they will need to be seen as collateral damage. If there is truly no way to redeem them and they are subject to a demon lord’s will, there is no other option but to destroy them. The alternative is to allow them to continue torturing children, and that is not going to happen.”

Carcelonia sighed and closed her eyes. After a long moment she opened her eyes. “The only reason Calypso is here today is because the demon in charge of torturing her smuggled me into the lab she was held in. There are loopholes in the chains they are bound to the demon lords by, and many of them have become adept at finding and exploiting them. Furthermore, if you go on a crusade to wipe out all of the demons on this world, it will draw the attention of a demon lord. Their power is beyond anything you can imagine. They will come here and destroy you, along with most of the world population.”

“That’s not actually true, you bungler,” Grodek’s voice spoke up from behind Carcelonia. “They could take on all of the demon lords, if they were prepared with the correct instruments.”

Carcelonia sighed again, this time in exasperation. “That’s a myth. There is no secret weapon for defeating demon lords.”

“You’ve done a great job of convincing yourself of that, you coward,” Grodek sneered derisively. “But your actions make me think you just might believe it after all. Why else would you have activated a Seraph? At the rate she’s progressing she’ll be able to challenge Dominions in under a week. She could already wipe the floor with archangels. If she had the instruments, she would snuff them all out like a candle. That’s what you’re really afraid of though, isn’t it? You’re afraid of what she’ll become and what that will mean for you.”

Carcelonia glared at the imp, her eyes full of hate and self-loathing. Aria blinked as she realized the imp seemed to be correct. This woman, whatever she was, seemed to be a coward at heart. She seemed to despise herself for it as well.

Grodek laughed grotesquely, his malevolent eyes filled with malice. “Yes, I know where she came from, you puckered pig sticker. Did you think I wouldn’t recognize one when I saw it? Even the ones she’s transformed are so far above the normal ranks that it will be impossible to hide what she is for much longer. You’ve backed yourself into a corner, like the whipped dog you are. That’s what you get for trusting demons, you jackass. Did you really think they gave you a Principality? I know angels are naïve, but you really take it to the next level.”

Carcelonia visibly flinched at Grodek’s words. The glare had been replaced by a look of anxiety as the angel stared at Calypso in sudden terror.

“What the flying fudge monkey is going on here?” Clarice demanded of Carcelonia harshly. “What have you done to Calypso? What is this Seraph he’s talking about?”

Carcelonia’s mouth moved but no sound came out as she stared at Clarice’s golden eyes in sudden recognition, her eyes filled with fear. Then she vanished.

Grodek laughed uproariously, rolling around in the air and pounding the imaginary ground. “What did I tell you? Biggest coward this universe has ever seen.”

The rest of them stared in disbelief at the space where Carcelonia had been standing. Had she really just scarpered out of there?

Aria mentally shook herself and looked at Grodek. “What are these instruments you were talking about?”

“Go see the Lore Boar if you want answers,” Grodek retorted disdainfully. “I’m done hand feeding you answers.”

He vanished, leaving a small popping sound with his absence.

“That little bastard,” Clarice fumed as she stared at the empty air. “How dare he come and tease us with tidbits and vanish when we want actual answers.”

“What on earth is a Lore Boar?” their mother asked in a puzzled voice.

“What’s a Seraph?” Lexi asked, looking just as bewildered.

“Well, if it’s anything like the Seraphim, it is the highest order of angel,” their mother answered, gazing thoughtfully at Calypso. “They were the order of angels that were closest to god, surrounding his throne.”

“Why does a god need a throne?” Clarice asked with a snicker. “Does he get tired of standing?”

“It’s probably symbolic,” their mother explained with a shrug. “It represents authority.”

“So, Calypso is going to be a Seraph?” Aria asked hesitantly.

They all looked at Calypso, noting the second pair of nested wings in her back.

“I’m pretty sure I don’t want to be a Seraph,” Calypso murmured, shifting uncomfortable under all of their gazes. “I can’t see myself hanging out around some god in a throne for all eternity.”

“I’m pretty sure humans have anthropomorphized god into something they can understand,” their mother told Calypso reassuringly. “I would imagine your job would be more in line with maintaining cosmic balance in the name of a supreme law, rather than an actual person.”

“Do you mind if I ask a question?” Jason asked tentatively. He had been slowly edging closer to them as they talked.

“What’s on your mind?” Clarice asked him with a suggestive wink. “Are you going to teach us some more technical jargon?”

Jason blinked, then blushed furiously as he remembered their earlier discussion. “No, I just wanted to ask what the hell is going on?”

“Well get in line,” Clarice snorted a laugh. “Because we also want to know what the hell is going on.”

“Were you guys talking to a demon?” Jason asked uneasily. “That floating thing that looked like an imp.”

Clarice looked around in bewilderment. “You guys? I don’t see any guys here.”

“He’s an imp, apparently named Grodek,” Aria answered Jason, shooting a reproachful glance at Clarice. “We tried killing him when we first met him, but he’s too fast for us to hit with anything we can fire. While he is extremely obnoxious, he has given us a lot of information that we didn’t have before.”

“Jason, do you want to have kids?” Calypso asked the young man curiously.

It took a while to restore order as Aria and Clarice fell to their knees, laughing uproariously as Jason’s face turned bright red. He looked ready to faint as he stared back at Calypso like a fish out of water.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Jason,” Calypso apologized quickly, her own lips quivering as she realized how her question had sounded. “What I meant was, do you plan to have kids someday?”

He let out a hysterical laugh filled with relief as his eyes darted around wildly. “Oh, um, yes? Someday?”

“We were discussing whether to offer you the option to transform into an angel,” Calypso explained, her lips still struggling to stop smiling. “We didn’t think that angels could have kids. Apparently, male angels can still have kids with human women though. Any children you have would be half human though and probably wouldn’t ever be capable of transforming into angels. Since you are planning to have children in the future, I would suggest you wait to take us up on this offer.”

“Me, an angel?” Jason breathed in amazement. “You think I would be responsible enough to be an angel?”

“We do,” Calypso nodded firmly.

“Wow, thank you for that vote of confidence,” Jason smiled, his eyes full of gratitude. “But I do think I would like to have a family first.”

“The offer will be there when you are ready for it,” Calypso informed him with a warm smile.

“Is there anything else we need to discuss, or any questions you have?” Clarice asked Jason, clearly signaling an end to their meeting.

“Just to sum up,” Jason began, holding up a finger. “First, my main priority is to get a hack in place to broadcast your channel so that we can destroy the nanobots in agency contractors. Second, hand off responsibility to some of the others to grow the network while I focus on number one. We ultimately plan to replace demons who are in influential positions of power with people from the network. Does that cover everything?”

“That’s about it,” Clarice nodded her agreement. “Let’s get you back to your apartment before anything else crazy happens over here.”

Calypso opened a gateway to Jason’s apartment in front of them. She gave him a parting embrace, charging his system with love and confidence. He was all smiles as he went back through the gateway, full of excited energy.”

“That went…pretty well,” Clarice noted with a wry smile. “He probably saw more than he should have with Grodek and Carcelonia, but I suppose we’ll just have to trust him to keep his mouth shut.”

“Do you really think we are a lot stronger than normal angels?” Aria asked them with a frown. “Grodek made it sound like normal angels aren’t very powerful.”

“Unless we ever meet another angel, it will be hard to answer that question,” their mother answered with a shrug. “I will say that I’ve noticed a power difference between the two of you and the rest of us. I think we are second generation angels, while you two were directly affected by Calypso’s tears. If she really is a Seraph, it would make sense that her tears would result in a more powerful angel than your tears. A new Seraph would probably result in a new hierarchy of angels, with the generation closer to Calypso being more powerful.”

“That would certainly explain why we have been able to destroy demons who are probably thousands of years old without any trouble,” Clarice noted with a pensive frown. “They would have been expecting far weaker angels than us. Maybe that’s why this Order of Saturn is worried. Maybe they realize the same thing Grodek has and suspect a higher order of angel. We’re basically like wrecking balls smashing through anything they throw at us.”

“I guess it’s not normal to be this powerful,” Aria let out a relieved breath. “I was wondering how the world was still standing if every angel started out as powerful as us and then just kept getting more powerful. I guess it explains how the demons managed to take over this world too.”

“There is more to it than you think,” their father told them with a troubled frown. He had blurred over to them as they spoke. “Seraphim sit above Cherubim. Any angel they make will become a Cherub, theoretically. Aria and Clarice would both be Cherubim in the making, if I’m right. That’s assuming any of the mythology we have in religious texts is accurate, of course.”

“You mean we’re going to turn into cute little naked baby’s?” Clarice asked, her face filled with mischief.

“That’s not what Cherubim are,” their father shook his head with a sigh. “You can thank Hallmark for that nonsense. Lucifer was supposedly a Cherub, before his fall. They probably came up with the image of babies due to angels lacking facial hair. Before shaving was a thing, only younger boys didn’t have beards.”

Aria shared a look with Clarice, her eyes sparkling with suppressed mirth. “Hello, your cherubimship, how do you do?”

“Not bad, your cherubimship, thanks for asking,” Clarice answered in a goofy formal British accent.

Their father facepalmed as he watched them. “Those two sitting at the top of the totem pole,” he breathed in disbelief. “This is going to be a wild ride.”

“That begs the question,” their mother spoke in a troubled voice. “Should we stop raising mortals to angels? If every time we raise someone they are going to be several orders above archangels, we should probably be even more picky about who we allow to become an angel.”

“I think we need to find this Lore Boar before we do anything else,” their father suggested with a thoughtful gaze at Calypso. “If that’s where we can find more answers, I think knowledge should be our primary focus. It sounds like things are even more political than we suspected with the demons and angels.”

“I wonder if there are any other angels on this world besides Carcelonia,” Clarice said, glancing at her father. “How is it that you and Mom are so knowledgeable about all of this religious mumbo jumbo?”

“You forget that we were children when religion was a lot more popular,” her father told her with a faint smile. “Before the internet existed and people could only get their information from books and churches. It was a lot easier to keep people indoctrinated when there weren’t easily accessible sources of information available. My spiritual journey started shortly after the advent of the internet when I really started digging into all of the doctrine of the different religions.”

“Your dad and I used to spend a lot of time discussing all of the disparities in religious doctrine and what the churches actually taught,” their mother added with an amused look. “There are a lot of apocryphal texts that used to be canon that were removed when they didn’t fit the current vision of the various religions. That’s where most of the information regarding angels exists. I would imagine the demons running this world are responsible for removing most of the real information about angels.”

“How are we going to find this lore boar thing?” Lexi asked doubtfully. “I’m not sure search engines are going to be much help with something like this.”

“Let’s just go grab a demon and grill them for information,” Clarice suggested with a wicked grin. “They’re probably going to have more information than anyone else at this point.”

“Just go grab a demon, huh?” Aria demanded, staring at her sister levelly.

“Why not?” Clarice asked with a shrug. “We have established that we are more powerful than the demons here. Let’s just go pick one up and shake it around until information starts falling out.”

“Where are we going to find a demon?” Aria asked dubiously. “Or should we just post a Google ad for demons wanted?”

“We know where they are,” Clarice reminded her patiently. “They are in positions of influence. We could just go to any media mogul or political office and sniff them out.”

“Oh yeah,” Aria chuckled sheepishly, her golden eyes abashed. “That was pretty obvious, wasn’t it?”

“Being a genius has its moments,” Clarice declared airily, absently buffing her nails on her shirt.

“Smart ass,” Aria accused, smacking her playfully on the shoulder.

“My ass’s IQ is definitely in the high triple digits,” Clarice grinned at Aria impudently.

“When do you want to snatch this demon?” their mother asked with a raised eyebrow. “And where do you want to take it to question it? I’m assuming you don’t want to bring it here.”

“God no,” Clarice wrinkled her nose. “The stench would be awful. We’ll just portal over to an island somewhere.”

“Who do you want to go after?” their father asked curiously. “Capitol Hill?”

“I figured we could just start at the top,” Clarice answered with an evil smile. “We’ll just grab the President.”

They all stared at her disbelievingly as she grinned back at them.

“Clarice, that would be like kicking the hornet’s nest,” Aria told her anxiously.

“You’re saying they would start sending demons and the military after us?” Clarice asked dryly. “Which is different than what they’ve been doing…how?”

Their parent’s shared a thoughtful look.

“She’s got a point,” their mother admitted grudgingly. “It’s not like they are going to come after us harder than they already are.”

“Calypso could just open a portal behind him, and I could pull him through before he knew what was going on,” Aria noted, warming to the idea.

“She could just open a portal beneath him and drop him in front of us,” Clarice pointed out. “It doesn’t need to be in front or behind.”

Aria walked up close to her sister and put her head against Clarice’s head.

“What’re ya doin?” Clarice drawled curiously.

“I’m seeing if I can get smarter by osmosis,” Aria replied, shivering slightly as their meridians began exchanging energy.

Clarice snorted a laugh as her parents and Lexi chuckled. Calypso watched the two of them in amusement, her swirling eyes full of affection.

They all turned and watched as they heard Devon walking Tamra back toward the gateway to her house. They were holding hands as they walked slowly down the path.

“So? How did it go?” Clarice asked Calypso curiously.

“I would have to say that it was a smashing success,” Calypso replied with a happy smile. “They are both highly attracted to each other.”

“I’m glad he’s going to get his wish to have a family,” their mother commented with a pleased smile. “He’s had a rough lot in life with all of this contractor nonsense.”

“I’ve certainly seen the longing in his eyes during holiday visits,” their father said with a wistful expression. “He used to love watching Clarice and Aria banter during Thanksgiving and Christmas.”

“Who wouldn’t want to watch that?” Clarice asked flippantly. “We could probably charge admission, and people would line up to watch.”

“We need to make a grocery run soon,” their mother said, ignoring Clarice. “I think I still pass as close enough to human that I could make the trip, if I wear sunglasses.”

Clarice walked up to their mother and whispered into her ear so quietly that even Aria’s super hearing didn’t pick it up. Their mother smiled faintly and nodded. Aria was struck again by how similar the two of them looked now.

“Secrets, Clarice?” their father asked with a raised eyebrow.

“You’ve been married long enough to know that a girl has to have her secrets,” Clarice responded with a sweet smile.

He stared at her levelly, but she just smirked back at him. He shook his head with a sigh. “I’m the man of the house. Aren’t you supposed to do what I say?”

“Actually, Devon’s the man of the house,” Clarice reminded him with a wink. “Nice try though, Dad.”

“Where’s the respect?” he asked the sky, throwing his hands upward.

“Probably hiding with your manhood,” Clarice suggested maliciously.

“You should know better than to cross words with Clarice,” their mother told him with an amused smile. “Just stop now before your ego is totally crushed.”

Calypso and Lexi wore mirror expressions of fond contentment. They had both missed out on having loving parents for most of their lives, and they seemed to enjoy soaking up the positive energy as the small family bantered playfully with each other.

“Calypso, would you mind opening a portal to a grocery store for me?” their mother asked, rubbing her hands together in a business-like fashion. “I’m going to get a pretty large stock of food in case we end up with additional refugees. Let’s open it in the kitchen though. That should save some back and forth.”

“Of course,” Calypso smiled warmly. She walked with their mother back up to the cabin while the rest of them watched Calypso go.

Her double layered wings were much different than those of the other angels, gossamer thin and shimmery. The energy she normally exuded had changed subtly since the return of her human memories. There was an undercurrent of potential that accompanied her usual love and compassion, as if the embryo of a sun were growing inside of her. Aria shivered as she thought of the future that lay ahead of them. If she and Clarice were really budding Cherubim, they were probably going to be involved in angel politics on a grander scale at some point.

“Grodek mentioned other realms,” Clarice murmured contemplatively as she idly played with a long dark strand of her hair. “Do you think realms are just other universes? If so, why call them realms?”

“Perhaps our idea of what the universe consists of is flawed,” their father suggested with a frown. “You three can fly in zero gravity. You should go do some exploring and see how far you can go. Maybe you’ll find some answers up there. How fast can you fly? Have you pushed yourself to your limits yet?”

Aria shared a hungry look with Clarice. “Dad, that is one of the best ideas you’ve ever had.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” he objected plaintively.

“We better take Calypso with us,” Aria warned Clarice with a smile. “She’d never forgive us if we went to space without her.”

“She probably would,” Clarice disagreed with a wry smile. “But I get your point.”

“Can I go too?” Lexi asked excitedly, her eyes sparkling with eagerness.

“One of us will need to hang on to you,” Clarice replied with a calculating look in her eyes. “You haven’t evolved to be unaffected by gravity yet.”

“What do I need to do to evolve for that ability?” Lexi asked, practically bouncing with excitement.

Aria shared a look with Clarice. Clarice lost it first, her face splitting into a grin as she began giggling. That triggered Aria, who began giggling madly as she tried to figure out how they were going to upgrade Lexi without…smooching...her.

Lexi squinted at them suspiciously as they tried to stop giggling. Their father just shrugged at Lexi with an amused expression.

“Paper, rock, scissors?” Aria suggested to Clarice with a raised eyebrow.

“Not with your luck,” Clarice declared with a shake of her head. “We’ll have to find a different method.”

“So…winner does the honors?” Aria asked suggestively.

“Winner does the honors,” Clarice agreed with a nod, her lips quivering with the effort of not smiling.

“What are we talking about?” Lexi asked, her eyes burning with curiosity.

“That’s for us to know, and you to find out,” Clarice told her impishly.

“Okay, who’s got a coin on them?” Aria asked, looking at their father.

He rummaged in his pockets and fished out a quarter.

“Flip it, Dad, and we’ll call it in the air,” Aria instructed him. She looked at Clarice suspiciously, remembering Calypso’s ability with dice. “But turn your back to us so that we can’t see it.”

“You got it, pumpkin,” he snarked, turning away from them. “Call it.”

“Heads,” Clarice called out at the same time as Aria.

“Just one of us calls it, you ninny,” Aria told her in exasperation.

“I know. Me,” Clarice retorted with a grin.

“Fine,” Aria sighed in resignation. “One more time, Dad.”

“Call it,” he said, flipping the coin.

“Tales,” Clarice called out, eyeing Aria challengingly.

“Tales it is,” their father informed them, turning back to face them. “I’m going to have to mark this day on the calendar. Clarice actually beat Aria at a luck game.”

Aria was staring at Clarice triumphantly while the others watched them in growing confusion. Clarice was trying to glare a hole into her head.

“If I ever meet the gods, and it seems like I might, I’m going to slap them silly,” Clarice declared viciously.

“I’m pretty sure you’ll be doing something else with them,” Aria disagreed with an arch look, waggling her eyebrows suggestively.

“I’m going to see if your mom and Calypso need any help unloading the groceries,” their father announced as he seemed to finally realize what they were competing over. He cast one last amused glance back at Clarice as he walked away.

“Are you going to explain what’s going on yet?” Lexi asked plaintively. “What does it have to do-.”

She cut off in shock as she was suddenly wrapped in Clarice’s arms. She opened her mouth to ask Clarice what was going on just in time for Clarice’s lips to connect with hers. Her eyes widened in shock. After a moment, her eyes softened and she leaned into the kiss, letting out a soft moan as her whole body quivered with sudden desire. Aria was pretty sure that Clarice was a much better kisser than her, so Lexi probably lucked out with her sister winning the coin toss.

After almost a minute of passion, they both began levitating off of the ground. Clarice finally pulled back from Lexi with a grin.

“There, you have the antigravity ability now,” Clarice told her with a wink.

Lexi blinked, looking down at the ground below them in surprise. “This is how you get the ability?” she demanded, blushing furiously.

“That’s the only way we know how to get it,” Clarice confirmed with a small smile.

“I didn’t think I would ever enjoy a kiss,” Lexi admitted quietly. “I kind of thought I was going to hate intimacy for the rest of my life.”

“It makes a big difference who the intimacy is with,” Clarice told her softly. “You’re not broken. By my estimation, you are one hundred percent functional.”

Lexi smiled shyly, not meeting their eyes. “That’s a relief. I was kind of worried about that.”

“We have eternity in front of us now,” Clarice told her with an encouraging smile. “They didn’t break your will. You just need some time to heal, and you’ll have plenty of it.”

Lexi pulled Clarice back into a hug, her eyes wet with quicksilver tears. “I know I’ve said this a lot, but I’m so glad that you found me.”

Clarice stroked her hair affectionately as she hugged her back, her own eyes filling with tears. “I’m so glad that we found you too.”

Clarice moved her cheek so that the tears running down it touched the tears on Lexi’s cheek. There was a golden glow that suffused the air around them, accompanied by an influx of energy. As Clarice pulled back from Lexi, she smiled as she saw the golden eyes looking back at her.

“My eyes feel hot,” Lexi murmured quietly.

“Welcome to the golden eyes club,” Clarice told her cheerfully.

“Really?” Lexi squealed excitedly. “I have golden eyes now too? This is so freaking awesome!”

“Who’s ready to go to space?” Aria asked as she heard her mother return in the cabin with the groceries.

“I’m so ready to go to space,” Lexi exclaimed exuberantly.

“You’re going to space?” Calypso asked intently, appearing right in front of them.

“We were just waiting for you,” Clarice told her with an excited grin. “Let’s go see what’s out there.”

The four of them launched into the air and streaked into the sky, disappearing in less than a second.

Chapter 14

“These are the files you requested, sir,” Drake said quietly, handing a ring to the Director of North American Operations, Peter Ladislav.

The director slipped the ring onto his finger and pressed the button on the back of it. “Access files,” he commanded. A holographic array of windows appeared in front of him full of images, videos, and documents. The last file was titled: Targets Exited Realm. He felt a spike of adrenaline as he witnessed the four angels shooting outside of the solar system at speeds no archangel could hope to achieve. They reached the barrier at the edge of the solar system and passed through it without slowing down.

“That clinches it,” Peter muttered uneasily. “They’re either Dominions or something even more powerful.”

“Sir, there was a sighting of Carcelonia in Rome about an hour ago,” Drake informed the director carefully. “She seemed…disturbed.”

“How so?” Peter asked with a frown.

“She looked terrified, according to the agent who witnessed her landing,” Drake answered, rubbing his cheek with a knuckle as he spoke. “She was distraught enough to have teleported into a place where she was easily observed by our agents, which is out of character for her. We traced her teleport trail, and it led to a cabin in Oregon. It seems to be the same cabin that was in New York.”

Peter blinked, looking at his aid with a frown. “You think they somehow teleported the entire residence across the country?”

“After examining the old location in New York, it appears that the positions were swapped. There are Oregon pine trees there now, and the geology is consistent with the Oregon mountains. We believe she was capable of initiating a matter exchange, but on a massive scale.”

Peter stared at his aid disbelievingly. “That would require power on par with a demon lord. Beyond a demon lord.”

“That was our assessment as well, sir,” Drake agreed quietly. “We were also taunted by Grodek again. He seemed extremely pleased with himself.”

“What did that little bastard have to say?” Peter scowled, wishing there were a way to harm imps. “Anything useful?”

“Mostly just gloating about ‘how fucked’ we are, as he put it,” Drake replied with a shrug. “He was quite gleeful about what a monumental miscalculation Carcelonia had made regarding something.”

Peter didn’t grin, but he came close. “So, we are finally getting some additional confirmation that she awakened our angel. Just not the kind of angel she thought it was.”

“That was our assessment too, sir,” Drake nodded, a faint smile on his face. “It seems she has finally realized that angel she awakened wasn’t a successor.”

Peter stood silently as he contemplated the future. Dominions weren’t supposed to grow this quickly. Their chances of harvesting the power of a Dominion was quickly diminishing. She should have already been in chains and under their control, where they could siphon off the immense power of a Dominion before she grew too powerful.

“We’re going to have to change our plans, it would seem,” Peter announced briskly. “It may already be too late to capture her. It might be time to start focusing on setting up a confrontation with Azkar.”

Drake nodded his agreement. “If we can’t collect the power to destroy a demon lord, we can manipulate events to where she does.”

“I think it’s time to send some envoys to these…angels,” Peter decided with a grim smile. “We can’t have them disrupting operations too early or Azkar will visit before it’s time.”

“Regarding the other angels,” Drake hesitated, biting his lip nervously. “The power they wield hasn’t been seen since-.”

“Yes, I know,” Peter interrupted with a scowl. “We’re going to be dealing with powers far beyond our level. That means we need to convince them of our goodwill before they start hunting us down.”

“Should we continue to support this…network…that they are trying to build?” Drake asked doubtfully.

“No,” Peter shook his head disdainfully. “But don’t interfere either. The other factions will probably do something rash soon, and it could be that we will soon have less power to share.”

XXXXX

Aria marveled at the beauty of interstellar space. Stars surrounded them in every direction as far as even their enhanced eyes could see. They had come across the occasional rogue planet as they shot through space at speeds she still couldn’t believe. The true beauty was revealed when looking with her spiritual eyes. Lines of energy filled the vacuum of space, lighting up the emptiness with its glow. What seemed so empty with mortal eyes was filled with a lattice of electromagnetic energy as interstellar rays arced through the cosmos.

“I thought stars were light years away,” Clarice declared with a confused crease to her brows as a star began to grow quickly in front of them. “We’re going fast, but not that fast.”

“I agree,” Aria announced, staring at the growing orb of light doubtfully. “This doesn’t make any sense.”

“Could astronomers have been wrong about the distances in space?” Clarice asked dubiously. “How are they even estimating the distance?”

“They use the parallax of our planet when we are on one side of the sun to see how far the starfield has changed when we get to the other side,” Aria explained, feeling like she finally had something intelligent to say. “It’s not a perfect measuring system, given the vast distances in space. I suppose it is possible that they were off by a significant amount, but this…I just can’t believe how close they are. Alpha Centauri is supposed to be over four light years away, but we’ve only travelled a fraction of that distance. A small fraction.”

“That would certainly make all of the supposed alien sightings more plausible,” Clarice noted with a laugh. “If stars aren’t actually as far away as they thought.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Aria frowned as she thought. “If demons and angels are a thing, would aliens be able to just pop into our world without any interference from either entity?”

“What makes you think there isn’t interference?” Clarice asked wryly. “How many UFO stories are about flying saucers getting shot down by the military? It could be that they are being attacked by the demons on our world when they visit.”

“Wait a minute,” Aria held up a hand as she had a sudden idea. “Remember how the demons on earth couldn’t seem to fly?”

“You think the UFO’s are the demons travelling between worlds?” Clarice asked, her eyes widening. “They’re not aliens after all, they’re just demons traversing between worlds.”

“There is one coming this way,” Calypso warned them with a nod ahead of them. “Maybe you can find out now.”

Aria didn’t see anything until she switched to her spiritual sight. Then she saw a classical flying saucer moving toward them quickly.

“What should we do if they attack?” Lexi asked anxiously.

“Let’s try to get the pilots out safely, without killing them,” Clarice instructed tersely. “Aria’s right. We need answers. I doubt they have any weapons that can harm us.”

They came to a stop and waited for the disc shaped craft to arrive. It didn’t take long, appearing right in front of them a few seconds later. It was over a thousand feet in diameter and had an outer ring adorned with colored lights that were spinning around the inner disk. Aria could sense an intense electromagnetic field surrounding the craft. Heat radiated away from the vessel. She peered through the physical shell at the pilots inside. They were clearly demons, similar to the ones that had tried to abduct them. Their physical bodies appeared to be human, but their spiritual form was a mass of writhing snake-like energy. The writhing snakes seemed much less frenetic than the ones they had previously destroyed.

Aria felt energy build up on a track that was on the inner disc. “I think they are getting ready to fire on us.”

“Calypso, can you teleport us inside of the craft?” Clarice asked calmly.

Aria blinked as she suddenly found herself inside of the vessel. They were in a small hallway with sleek walls and flooring. The vessel appeared to be seamless, with no sign of joints, bolts, or other flaws, as if it was one piece.

Clarice marched forward through what appeared to be a door made of energy. Aria quickly followed her, arriving in what had to be the bridge. There were four demons sitting in a circle on captain chairs. She was surprised at how weak the demon stench was. There were no control panels, buttons, screens, or anything else she would have expected on a ship. The pilots wore helmets that she could sense were connected to the ship, exchanging information based on thought patterns.

“We’re going to play a game,” Clarice told the pilots coldly. “The first person to answer my questions gets to live.”

The pilots leaped out of their seats and spun around to face them in shock. They waved their hands in front of their chests and a beam of light arced toward Clarice. She easily dodged it, allowing it to hit the wall behind her with a sizzling hiss. Aria stared at the small squares on their chests where the light had originated. She blasted the devices in less than a second, leaving the pilots staggering in surprise.

Clarice flashed through the ship, tearing off helmets before the pilots had time to raise their hands to defend themselves. Human faces with reptilian eyes stared back at her in fear.

“Do you understand what I’m saying, or do I need to make you understand?” Clarice asked them grimly.

“We understand,” the tallest of their number answered nervously in an accent that sounded eerily close to Russian. He was slowly reaching toward his pocket as he spoke.

Aria flashed forward and emptied his pocket, pulling out a small token with a button on it. “What’s this, a distress call?”

The man shrank back from her, his eyes bulging in surprise at her sudden appearance.

“It’s time to start our game,” Clarice told them with a cold smile. “First question. What is your name?”

The tallest demon blinked at her question. He licked his lips before hesitantly answering. “Rodek.”

“What is your job?” Clarice asked, her golden eyes boring into him.

“To monitor the system for anomalies or intruders,” Rodek answered, his eyes riveted to Clarice’s golden gaze.

“What is your favorite color?” Clarice demanded, her face taking on an even more fierce glare.

The demon paused, a confused crease appearing on his brow. “My favorite color?”

“Judas priest, Clarice, can you be serious for once?” Aria sighed in exasperation. “What the hell are you quoting Monty Python for?”

“We’re on ‘the bridge’,” Clarice told her archly, her eyes sparkling with mirth. “You know, ‘the Bridge of Death’? I couldn’t not ask those questions.”

Aria facepalmed with a groan, shaking her head in resignation. “We travel hundreds of millions of miles from earth through space, board a demon piloted flying saucer, and your first action is to start quoting Monty Python?”

Clarice thought for a moment and then nodded. “Yes, that is correct.”

“Monty Python?” one of the other pilots repeated questioningly, his voice hesitant. “With the coconuts?”

“You see that?” Clarice shouted triumphantly, pointing at the pilot who had spoken. “It’s such a freaking classic that even alien demons have seen it!”

“Do you have any idea what’s going on?” Calypso asked Lexi in bewilderment.

“She’s quoting a movie from earth, I think,” Lexi replied with a small smile. “I’ve never seen it, but I’ve heard of it.”

“Of course she is,” Calypso said wryly. “That’s our Clarice.”

“So do you demons stay in close contact with the demons on earth?” Clarice asked Rodek with a raised eyebrow. “Clearly you exchange pop culture.”

“Well…,” the pilot shrugged uncomfortably. “We are not supposed to, but sometimes things find their way between worlds.”

“Ah, smuggling,” Aria nodded her understanding. “What territories are you monitoring? Just this star system?”

“Yes, that is correct,” Rodek nodded agreeably. He clearly wanted to stay on the good side of his overpowered ‘guests’.

“Well, Rodek, we’re looking for something called the Lore Boar,” Clarice told him conversationally. “Ever heard of it?”

“It is a myth,” Rodek replied with a shrug. “They say it can answer any questions you have, if you provide it with exquisite food or entertainment.”

“And this mythical creature is supposed to reside where?” Clarice asked probingly.

“They say it resides in Eden, where humans were first seeded,” Rodek answered, relaxing slightly as the angels appeared to be acting cordially. “Somewhere in the Sol system.”

“Well, I guess we went too far then,” Clarice declared with a put upon sigh. She looked at the pilots, her gaze hardening. “I would suggest you forget you ever saw us. I’m letting you live, since you have good taste in comedy, but if I find out you’ve blabbed our whereabouts to anyone…” she left the threat hanging in the air.

“Seen who?” Rodek asked nervously. He turned to his fellow pilots. “I didn’t see anybody, did you?”

“Good man…er…demon,” Clarice corrected awkwardly. “Calypso?”

The ship vanished as Calypso teleported them out into space again. The vessel was several hundred miles away from them.

“I’m impressed at your restraint,” Aria told Clarice admiringly. “I thought you were going to kill all of them.”

“I thought about it,” Clarice frowned, glancing back at the vessel in the distance. “They didn’t stink like the other demons did though. I get the feeling the more evil they are the worse they stink.”

“It would be nice if there were a way to allow demons to be redeemed as angels again,” Calypso commented with a troubled look. “Especially if they were former angels who were forced into becoming demons. I’m not sure I can accept that there isn’t a way.”

“I wouldn’t accept it,” Aria encouraged her with a confident grin. “You’re a freaking Seraph. If you want to redeem a demon, that demon is going to be redeemed.”

Calypso smiled winsomely at her. “With the three of you by my side, I’m sure I will be able to.”

“So where do you think Eden is?” Clarice asked curiously. “I haven’t spent much time studying religions for obvious reasons, so I’m kind of clueless in this arena.”

“We could always bug Mom and Dad,” Aria suggested reflectively. “It must have been weird growing up before the internet and not having a way to research anything without going to a library. I’ll bet it took forever to get anything done.”

“In ten years, people are going to talk about how we grew up before AI became intelligent, and how long it took to find anything out with search engines,” Clarice noted dryly.

“True,” Aria agreed, smiling faintly. “Okay, so back to the cabin?”

“I want to stop at Saturn on the way,” Clarice announced with a hint of steel in her eyes. “Let’s see if this Order of Saturn has its origins on the actual planet of Saturn. They clearly have interstellar travel, so they have likely inhabited the other planets to some extent.”

“Let’s go to the hexagon at the pole,” Aria suggested eagerly. “I want to see for myself the kind of weather pattern that can form a hexagon for hundreds of years.”

It didn’t take them more than a few minutes to reach the ringed planet. They stared down at the enormous cyclone in the center of the hexagon. With her spiritual eyes, Aria could easily see the ropes of energy that spread out from the hexagon, shooting out into the rings. The rings were resonating with the emitted energy, transmitting a harmonic that radiated out into the rest of the solar system.

“What is that resonance doing, do you suppose?” Clarice wondered with a calculating gaze. “It seems to be affecting the entire solar system.”

“I noticed that too,” Aria murmured, studying the resonance curiously. “It seems to be affecting matter in an odd way, kind of like when you put sand on a vibrating metal plate and it forms patterns.”

“The center of the vortex leads into the inside of the planet,” Calypso informed them as she stared into it intently.

“It’s a gas giant,” Aria objected with a puzzled look at Calypso. “There shouldn’t be an inside to this planet.”

“I think we need to forget about everything we were taught in school,” Clarice advised critically. “Clearly they were either very wrong, or they were purposely obfuscating the truth.”

“Agreed,” Aria nodded slowly. “I feel like I’ve wasted a lot of time learning things that I have to unlearn now.”

“Shall we investigate?” Calypso asked suggestively, eyeing the center of the cyclone eagerly.

“Why not?” Clarice grinned enthusiastically. “I’m so ready to go explore another planet.”

They shot down into the vortex at terrific speeds, unaffected by the torrential winds blowing around them.

“Ah shit,” Clarice cursed at the same time that Aria noticed that the colors of their clothing was quickly bleeding out as they plunged past the gaseous hydrogen and into the denser part of the atmosphere. While the wind didn’t affect them or their clothing, the temperature and chemical composition of the atmosphere did.

“I hope Tamra has some new clothes ready for us when we get back,” Aria lamented plaintively. “I totally forgot what the pressure down here would do to our clothes.”

“We seriously need to evolve an ability to protect our clothing,” Clarice declared with a sigh. “At least I’ll get a good show.”

Aria shook her head resignedly, resisting the urge to try and cover herself as Clarice leered at her.

“Hey, that’s cheating!” Clarice yelled at Calypso bitterly.

Aria laughed when she saw that Calypso had used her shapeshifting ability to appear clothed. “Okay, we don’t need to evolve to protect our clothes, we just need to become shapeshifters like Calypso.”

The last remnants of their clothing disintegrated as they plunged deep into the cyclone and the pressure became dramatically higher. The vortex was a thing of beauty, with shades of gold, amber, and cream swirling around them. Sunlight filtered through the top, producing dramatic shadows and light rays. It became hazier as they descended deeper, and they could see flashes of electrical discharges in the distance.

When they had plunged several thousand miles inside of the vortex, the storm suddenly subsided as the temperature began to rise. They slowed their descent as they reached a large, clearly artificial platform of immense proportions.

“Well, it looks like somebody’s been here,” Clarice observed as she landed on the metallic surface. “Looks like this thing is creating the main vortex.”

Aria switched to her spiritual eyes, gasping as she discovered the powerful electrical currents rotating around below them. The platform was shaping and amplifying the electromagnetic currents as it wove them into a spiral pattern.

“Somebody created this to generate that resonance we observed pinging the rest of the solar system,” Aria remarked, studying the electromagnetic field below them. “This giant circuit seems to be manipulating the planetary magnetic field to produce that vortex. I wonder what would happen if we turned it off.”

“I’m not sure that would be a good idea,” Clarice warned her with a frown. “We don’t know if this is the work of demons, a creator, or some alien species. For all we know it could be keeping the earth safe from something dangerous.”

“I don’t think so,” Calypso disagreed, shaking her head slowly. “This is a demon construct. I can feel the dissonance it is creating. It is wrong.”

“That makes things easy then,” Clarice announced brightly. “Let’s vaporize it.”

Calypso nodded slowly. “I think we should.”

“Okay, let’s get vaporizing,” Clarice grinned enthusiastically. “Aria, I think you’ve got the most powerful blaster. Let’s see what those hourglass eyes can do to this thing.”

Aria grinned back at her sister, floating up above the platform several miles. She relaxed the restraints she had on the condensed energy inside of her eyes as the other’s flew up to her level. A wire-thin beam of light shot down into the platform. She kept the beam firing as she moved the beam from one said to the other. The platform was several hundred miles in size. After a minute of nonstop firing, she paused to observe the effects. The platform was rippling like a heatwave as it underwent de-molecurization, the chemical bonds unraveling in an expanding chain reaction as the entire platform sublimated. The process was complete within a few minutes.

“It looks like the vortex is undergoing cyclosis,” Aria observed as she watched the planetary electromagnetic field blast upward without being transformed by the macro circuit she had destroyed. The swirling funnel of hydrogen and helium was no longer maintaining its intensity. It was slowing even as they watched.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Aria muttered absently. “The vortexes are powered by thermal gradients, not EM fields. How did removing that oversized antenna shut the vortex down?”

“That would depend on the other trace elements in the atmosphere too, wouldn’t it?” Clarice asked with a raised eyebrow. “I read an article about cloudseeding where they dropped barium in the atmosphere and then zapped the sky with powerful EM fields to ionize the atmosphere.”

“This is hydrogen and helium, not oxygen and water,” Aria shook her head, her brows creased. “There are trace hydrocarbons in the atmosphere as well, but that still shouldn’t account for this dramatic change in the cyclone’s decay. There must have been something else going on with that circuit to create the vortex in the first place.”

“Okay, Professor, we can puzzle this out later,” Clarice told her with a sardonic smile. “Quit showing your education off and let’s get back to Earth. I’m curious to see if this has affected anything there.”

“Okay, fine,” Aria sighed, reluctantly following them back up the vortex. “I suppose we should go straight to Tamra’s house.”

“Yes,” Lexi agreed quickly. Her cheeks had been varying shades of red since their clothing had disintegrated.

Clarice gave a sultry laugh that set Lexi to a deeper shade of red but didn’t argue.

It only took a minute to get to Tamra’s. All of the lights except the porch light were out, and Aria realized that it was quite late. It was hard to keep track of time when they had perfect color night vision.

“Should we wake her up?” Lexi asked hesitantly. “I don’t want to ruin her sleep.”

“She’s not sleeping,” Calypso muttered, her face bright red.

“Don’t tell me,” Clarice grinned slyly. “She has a friend over for the night.”

Calypso nodded, avoiding Clarice’s eyes.

“They didn’t waste any time, did they?” Aria noted with a wicked grin. “Remember when I told you what a horn dog was, Calypso?”

“I suggest we go back to the cabin and make do with some of our old clothes until morning,” Calypso suggested carefully, ignoring Aria’s question.

“Fine,” Aria sighed in mock exasperation. “We won’t interrupt the love birds this time.”

“I’m totally fine waiting,” Clarice told them with a lascivious grin.

A portal opened up on the third floor balcony and Calypso went through without another word, Lexi right on her hills.

“After you,” Clarice gestured magnanimously.

“Not likely, you perv,” Aria snorted, pushing her sister through the portal.

“You’re no fun,” Clarice pouted as she stumped through with a sigh.

“How was outer space?” their mother’s voice asked from several rooms down. “Did you lose your clothes again?”

“Yeah,” Aria replied with a defeated laugh. “We seriously need to get another upgrade that protects our clothes from damage. Either that or get Calypso’s shapeshifting ability.”

“Tamra won’t be available until morning, so we’re going to make do with sheets or bras again,” Clarice told their mother. “I’m all for the bra club though.”

“Did you girls do anything…extreme.. about twenty minutes ago?” their father asked pointedly.

“Yeah,” Aria answered, her brows creasing. “Why, what happened here?”

“We’re not sure,” he answered slowly. “Something seemed to fundamentally change though. It’s almost like a blanket of negative energy was removed that I hadn’t realized was there until it was gone.”

“We stopped by Saturn and destroyed a giant antenna inside the pole,” Clarice informed them nonchalantly. “It seemed to be sending out some kind of resonance to the rest of the solar system, but we weren’t sure what it did.”

There was a long pause before her father spoke again. “You went to Saturn?”

“Oh, we went a lot further than Saturn,” Clarice replied with a laugh. “We went all of the way to Alpha Centauri.”

“Is your sister messing with me?” their father asked Aria plaintively.

“Nope,” Aria grinned. “But it’s not as amazing as it sounds. Alpha Centauri isn’t actually four light years away. Not even close. Someone has either made a huge blunder with astronomical measurements or purposely misled everyone about the distances to other stars.”

“Really?” their father asked in sudden excitement. “Was it populated?”

“We didn’t actually go to any of the planets,” Aria responded with a wry chuckle. “We ended up boarding a flying saucer piloted by demons. Your daughter started spouting Monty Python at them.”

“I’m going to need more context than that,” their father informed her critically.

“We were on the bridge of the ship,” Clarice told him innocently. “So, I asked them three questions they had to get right to live.”

There was silence for several seconds, broken by a groan from their mother.

“What was their favorite color?” their father asked, clearly struggling not to laugh.

“Aria interrupted before they could answer that question,” Clarice replied bitterly. Her voice suddenly brightened. “But one of the demon pilots had seen Monty Python. It’s such a classic that it’s even popular in other star systems.”

“What happened to your clothes this time?” their mother asked curiously.

“I forgot about the extreme pressure the cyclone on Saturn would cause when we dropped inside of it,” Aria explained ruefully. “On a brighter note, the astronomy community is going to have a lot to talk about once they notice the hexagon on the pole is gone.”

“You broke Saturn?” their father asked levelly.

“No, just some construct the demons had put down inside the pole,” Aria replied nonchalantly. “It was about the size of a city and was responsible for the hexagon. I vaporized it because it seemed like a good idea. No big deal.”

“I think the power’s going to her head,” their father said sadly.

“It is,” Clarice agreed with a smile in her voice. “It shoots out of her eyes.”

“Just let it lie, dear,” their mother warned in an amused tone.

“Did you get everything set up, Mom?” Clarice asked cryptically.

“I sure did,” she replied indulgently. “Why don’t you girls get dressed and come down to the library. If any of you need some help getting wrapped up, give me a holler.”

“Clarice?” Aria prompted expectantly. “What’s going on?”

“Hard to say,” Clarice replied airily. “Perhaps we should just do what Mom said and take our cute little butts down to the library.”

“I don’t remember saying anything about cute little butts,” their mother objected dryly.

“I’m just rephrasing what you meant rather than what you said,” Clarice explained helpfully.

Aria quickly dressed, reluctantly donning a bra, then blurring down to the library. She laughed when she saw the giant HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEXI letters hanging from the ceiling. There were board games set up on several tables and a movie projector displaying a streaming service on one of the white walls. There were party streamers and decorations all over the room.

She turned as she heard Lexi join her. Her eyes went wide as she looked at all of the festive decorations and activities.

“Happy belated birthday, Lexi,” their mother told her with a soft smile. “We were a little late, but here we are.”

Lexi stared in surprise for a moment longer before her eyes filled with quicksilver tears and she rushed forward to hug their mother. “Thank you,” she whispered, her voice filled with gratitude.

“It was my pleasure,” their mother told her gently, pulling her in tightly. “This was Clarice’s idea. She asked me to get all of this stuff while I was shopping earlier.”

“And as you can see, she’s the best mom in the world,” Clarice declared fondly, joining her mother and embracing the two of them.

“Yeah, she really is,” Lexi agreed, her voice thick with emotion. “You are the most amazing family in the world.”

“In the cosmos now,” Clarice grinned. “Happy birthday, Lexi. We are so glad you joined us.”

Aria smiled fondly at Clarice, reflecting once again that she had the best sister in the cosmos. She turned as she heard Calypso enter the library. She had brought her own harp with her. Her eyes were filled with happiness as she set it down near the table.

“I just realized that I could just teleport to the storage shed to get my instruments,” Calypso explained with a radiant smile. “This harp has always been special to me. I feel like I just regained the use of a missing limb.”

Aria stared at the harp curiously. It was made from a type of brilliantly white wood that she didn’t recognize. “Where did you get that harp from, originally?”

“My father found it at the tree my parents found me at,” Calypso replied, fondly stroking the frame. “He had found it there a few years before they found me. That’s one of the reasons he visited that particular spot. It was like a holy place for him.”

“What kind of wood is that frame made from?” Aria asked quizzically. “I’ve never seen a harp made from wood that color.”

“I have no idea,” Calypso shrugged with a helpless smile. “I’ve never actually played it. My father wouldn’t let me touch it. When he died, I decided to honor his wish and not play it. However, I have a new family now and I think tonight’s celebration calls for some special music.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Aria grinned with anticipation. Listening to Calypso play live music would never get old.

The next several hours were filled with merriment as they played game after game, watched movies, and told stories. As it neared morning they convinced Calypso that it was time to play her harp for them. She flushed as she looked at the small group gazing at her.

“I’m not used to playing in front of people that aren’t children,” Calypso murmured shyly.

“Just imagine we’re all in our underwear,” Clarice suggested mischievously. “Oh yeah, we are.”

Lexi laughed uproariously, wiping tears from her eyes. It had been an emotionally charged night for her, soaking up the love and cheer.

The room grew quiet in anticipation as Calypso arranged the harp. With another shy smile, she began to play.

Aria shivered as tingles shot up her spine as the first sequence of notes filled the room. It was unlike any sound she had ever heard from a harp. Each string the Seraph plucked felt like her soul was being plucked. It reverberated around the room with a resonating power that shook her to the core. Clarice and the others were just as shaken as they watched in awe as Calypso played the first sequence of notes. Calypso closed her eyes and began to sing. Aria gasped as power flooded into her soul like a damn bursting. Colorful discharges of energy flashed around them, reminiscent of the auroras as they rippled through the air. Aria felt paralyzed as the power rushed through her in a torrent, filling her soul to bursting. As she felt her soul reach capacity, her meridians warped and began to morph into a lattice of multidimensional runes at each node. She felt her wings transform into the same gossamer thin membranes as Calypso, with a second set appearing nested within the first. Her hands and feet vibrated with energy, and she felt a newfound sense of authority written into her limbs. The energy lines throughout the world were no longer just visible to her spiritual eyes; they were joined by multidimensional layers that she instinctively knew led to other realms she could now travel to.

As her heightened spiritual vision matured, she felt the presence of Grodek watching with rapt intensity. There were tears in his demon eyes as the overpowering melody wove a fabric of divine love with Calypso’s ethereal voice.

The world could have shattered into dust, and Aria wouldn’t have noticed as the song escalated into an exquisite tapestry of indescribable sublime beauty. As the song finally reached its end, Aria realized that all of them were glowing brilliantly.

Calypso stood with a rapturous smile on her face for a moment longer before opening her eyes. She blinked when she saw the glowing and transformed angels in front of her, tears running down their faces.

“I…I…I” Clarice couldn’t voice her thought. She was too shaken by the powerfully divine performance to articulate a comprehensible sentence.

“Are you all okay?” Calypso asked in sudden concern.

“Calypso,” Aria whispered in awe. “That was divine.”

The others nodded slowly, their eyes filled with reverence.

Calypso looked gratified, her face lighting up with a pleased smile.

“I think that harp might be one of the instruments Grodek was hinting at,” Aria announced as she finally found her voice. “I’ve never felt so much power. Not even close.”

The others were a little longer to recover, with Clarice finding her voice finally. “Yeah, that thing was reaching into my soul and mining for gold. I feel like I just went through twenty evolution cycles.”

“I’ll bet you did,” the snarky voice of an imp laughed. “That harp was made from the Tree of Life.”

Chapter 15

Drake hurried through the large office building until he reached the Directors office at the back of the building. He tried to stop his hands from shaking as he knocked on the door.

“Enter,” the Director’s voice came through the small speaker on the wall next to the door.

Drake scanned his ring across the reader and entered the large office. The Director was standing in front of the windows of the high rise looking out onto the city with his back to the door. The office was decorated with expensive sculptures on pedestals and priceless paintings on the walls, each with their own track lights to illuminate them. Some of the paintings and sculptures were everything you would expect a demon to possess. Children with their hands tied behind them and expressions of despair on their faces. A woman with no eyes groping for a light switch. Drake detested the paintings almost as much as the Director hated them. A certain ambience was expected of a demon in his station, however.

“I have some reports from agents that we stationed a dozen miles from the residence,” Drake announced as he moved toward the desk near the windows. “I believe you have already viewed the surveillance of the Saturn feed.”

“I have,” the Director confirmed, his tone steely. “It raises more questions, however. How did they know we were modulating the moods of mortals with apathy programming? Is this Grodek’s doing? How much has the little bastard told them?”

“It’s possible that she has developed enough to have sensed the modulator and sought it out on her own,” Drake noted carefully.

“The main reason we set it up deep inside of Saturn was to make it untraceable,” the Director replied dourly. “Not even a Dominion could have sensed that.”

“We were able to secure a debriefing with Carcelonia before I came here,” Drake informed him, unable to completely mask the fear in his voice.

“And?” the Director prompted him impatiently.

“She said that Grodek claimed Calypso was a Seraph,” Drake finished on a hoarse note, feeling the dread wash over him anew.

“What?” the Director whirled around, his eyes wild with sudden anxiety.

“Grodek was ridiculing her for trusting demons,” Drake expounded, licking dry lips. “She said he claimed what she activated was a Seraph.”

The Director clenched his jaw as he stared through Drake into a future where all hell broke loose. “That would explain the power surge felt worldwide. What was the report from the agents monitoring the residence?”

“They reported that the skies lit up with auroras above the residence and the entire cabin lit up like an incandescent bulb,” Drake responded nervously. “They said they heard the sound of a divine instrument playing. It nearly destroyed them.”

“A Seraph with a divine instrument,” the Director murmured disbelievingly, his composure beginning to crack. “On Earth. This is going to draw attention from the realms of light. They won’t leave a Seraph alone if they think they can destroy her before she fully ascends.”

“The divine instruments were supposedly destroyed,” Drake noted with cautious optimism. “If she possesses one, they may not dare to challenge her even at her current level.”

“I want to know how Carcelonia ended up with a Seraph,” the Director growled in exasperation. “I was personally involved in the arrangements with Carcelonia a hundred years ago. I’m positive the data showed her as a Dominion. Not to mention, the four Seraphim were supposedly destroyed. How is there even a Seraph on this world to activate?”

“I assigned some of the AI’s to start parsing the archives from satellite for the last hundred years,” Drake informed him. “The only anomaly they found in regard to the data transfer was a brief flash near the archive room a few days before the meeting was set up. We picked up one frame of a certain imp. We also found evidence that the soul trap had been tampered with by someone.”

“Grodek,” the Director ground out angrily. “What is that little bastard playing at.”

“Carcelonia claims that he wasn’t always an imp,” Drake responded, feeling another wave of unease. “She seemed more willing to share her knowledge after realizing what he had done to her. She said he was demoted by a Seraph for violating one of their tenants. Apparently, he was either a Seraph or a Cherub before his demotion. She claimed he was trying to hide the divine instruments from the remaining four Seraphim after they destroyed the other four Seraphim. He was declared fallen, but something happened that caused him to become an imp, rather than a demon lord.”

“Why would he prefer being an imp to a demon lord?” the Director asked in a puzzled voice.

“We asked her the same question,” Drake responded, running his hand through his hair uncomfortably. “While we know imps don’t report to a demon lord, they also don’t undergo a personality rewrite when they are changed like the rest of us, apparently.”

“Are you telling me that he was like this before?” the Director asked disbelievingly.

“Carcelonia claims he became bitter after his demotion,” Drake answered levelly. He understood that bitterness all too well.

“I can imagine,” the Director frowned in concentration. “I think we need to make contact now, before they start wiping us out on sight. We need to make it clear that not all demons are hostile. We should probably send somebody less touched by darkness though. I don’t give whoever we send very good odds of survival if those angels smell the stench of a demon.”

XXXXX

“The tree of life from the Garden of Eden?” their mother asked disbelievingly.

“No, you brainless butterfly, the tree of life from the garden of slug slime,” Grodek retorted caustically. “How many trees of life have you heard of to ask such a stupid question?”

“You don’t have to be so insulting about it,” their mother muttered in an injured tone.

“You are correct, it is by choice that I do so,” Grodek leered at her.

“Does that mean the tree was chopped down?” their father demanded, askance.

“How much wood do you think is needed for a harp, genius?” Grodek sneered condescendingly. “A tree the size of a mountain isn’t going to miss a harp sized chunk of wood.”

“How can I change you back into an angel?” Calypso asked, staring at Grodek intently.

He paused, taken aback at her non sequitur. His eyes narrowed as he stared at her with an unreadable look. “You haven’t got the faintest clue of what you are asking.”

“Yes, I do,” Calypso responded calmly. She stared back at Grodek levelly. “I will not accept this nonsense about fallen angels being unredeemable. I can feel how wrong the idea is in my core. It is not a question of if, but a question of how.”

He stared back at her in silence, all traces of ridicule gone from his countenance. “It’s not that it can’t be done. It’s that it shouldn’t be done.”

“That’s not true either,” Calypso shook her head firmly. “I can feel that it should be done. Something has gone wrong, and it needs to be made right. Taboo’s will be broken and traditions abandoned if that’s what is required. I will accept nothing less. I don’t know where you have received your information, but it is wrong.”

“You need to see the Lore Boar,” Grodek muttered, looking away. “I’m done here.”

There was a small pop as he vanished.

“Mom, you should probably cover up,” Clarice told their mother, who had lost most of her shirt when they had been fast tracked by Calypso’s latest performance with a divine instrument. Both of her parents now had wings and golden eyes.

“Oh!” their mother gasped in surprise, then laughed as she left the room. “See how powerful your music is, Calypso? You can undress people, and they won’t even notice.”

Calypso blushed as the others laughed.

“I wasn’t complaining,” their dad pointed out with a grin, his shirt also in tatters.

“There is a demon on the doorstep,” Calypso informed them calmly. “I believe she wants to talk.”

Aria cursed her inattentiveness. She had heard footsteps in the background leading up to the door but had assumed it was her uncle. She should have noticed the difference in their gate.

She and Clarice blurred over to the front door, jerking it open and preparing to fire at the slightest hint of aggression.

A woman with dark hair and striking features stood on the doorstep, her face filled with shock. Her reptilian eyes stared through them as if they weren’t there as her face showed with sudden hope. She was a few inches shorter than the two of them and wore a simple blue summer dress.

“How much did you hear?” Clarice asked the demon with a raised eyebrow.

“Can she really change demons back into angels?” the woman asked, her eyes a mixture of doubt and hope.

Aria felt a sudden wave of compassion as she realized this must be one of the former angels turned against her will. She realized the other reason they hadn’t noticed her; the stench of demon was practically nonexistent on the woman. “What’s your name?”

“Arturiel,” the woman answered nervously. “I was sent to act as an envoy from the North American Territory.”

Aria shared a look with Clarice before turning back to the demon. “An envoy, huh? What is it that you want to discuss?”

“I was told to answer any questions you have and to negotiate a truce between you and the North American Territory,” Arturiel answered carefully, her eyes darting away from their golden gazes.

“Well, come on in then, I guess,” Clarice sighed, gesturing for her to follow them.

She swallowed nervously and nodded. As Clarice turned and led her into the house, Arturiel gasped as she saw the double layered wings on her back. Clarice glanced back at her curiously as she led her to the library.

“What?” Clarice asked curiously.

Arturiel flinched away from Clarice’s curious golden eyes like they were laser beams. Which they were, of course.

“I...um…it’s just been a long time since I’ve seen a Cherub,” Arturiel answered in what would have been barely audible for a human. “I never thought I would see one on this world, let alone two.”

“They didn’t tell you what we were?” Clarice asked with an amused twinkle in her eyes.

“No, they just said you were new angels that I needed to show the utmost respect to,” Arturiel replied, licking her lips nervously. “Are you really new angels?”

“I think today’s our one week anniversary,” Aria answered with an inquiring look at Clarice.

“Yep, today’s our one week anniversary,” Clarice confirmed cheerfully. “Happy anniversary, Aria.”

“Right back at ya, Clarice,” Aria grinned with a wink.

“How have you become so powerful in such a short time?” Arturiel asked faintly. “I didn’t think Cherubim could awaken this fast.”

“That’s her fault,” Clarice declared, pointing at Calypso with a nod as they entered the library.

Arturiel froze as she spotted Calypso standing next to the harp. Her eyes filled with sudden terror as they fell on the harp, and she turned to flee. Before she could move more than a step, Calypso was standing in front of her. Calypso pulled her into a hug, closing her eyes as she studied the demon in her arms with her spiritual eyes.

Arturiel stood petrified in Calypso’s arms, her face filled with dread. Aria felt Calypso tentatively wrap the demon in her aura of love, barely touching her with the curtain of light. Arturiel’s shoulders hunched in sudden pain as the angel’s loving energy brushed her meridians lightly.

Calypso retracted her aura, and the wince of pain disappeared from the demons face. Calypso kept her eyes closed and hummed a poignant melody. Aria could tell that she was searching for answers, using her music to open her to the intuition that guided her healing.

Arturiel’s wide eyes rolled around in their sockets as she searched for a way to escape. Calypso’s melody became soothing, almost hypnotic, and Arturiel’s eyes slowed down their frantic search as the beautiful voice calmed her soul.

Aria and Clarice stared at the demon with their spiritual eyes, watching as Calypso sent probing tendrils of light into the woman’s meridians. Aria squinted as she noticed for the first time that the nodes at the chakra points were tethered to a highway of energy that emptied into a vortex of spiritual matter that disappeared near the navel. Calypso’s probing tendrils of light were moving down into that vortex, close but never actually touching the demon’s meridians. Aria blinked as the probing tendril disappeared into the vortex.

Calypso stood frozen with her eyes closed for almost an hour as she studied whatever it was she had found inside the vortex. Arturiel remained still, her eyes uncertain but no longer panicking. Aria’s mother had joined them, her shirt pinned together with safety pins.

Aria felt a metaphysical shift in reality as Calypso suddenly blazed into a sun, her skin so bright that Aria couldn’t look at it with her physical or spiritual eyes. She sensed an overpowering surge of energy rush down the tendril Calypso had submerged into the vortex of Arturiel’s core.

Arturiel opened her mouth to scream, her eyes wide with sudden horror, but just as the scream began, it died as her face shifted to wonder. The aura of love that Calypso had pulled back was suddenly wrapped tightly around Arturiel, charging the woman with love and light. There was no sign of pain this time. Instead, she gasped and began to glow, brighter and brighter by the second. The entire library was devoid of shadows as both Calypso and Arturiel glowed like two suns. Aria felt the presence of Grodek in the distance again, observing the transformation in disbelief.

The light vanished suddenly, leaving the two angels locked in an embrace. Arturiel was sobbing in shock and joy as she felt her restored connection to light and love. She clung to Calypso desperately, her face buried into her shoulder as she was overcome by emotion.

“That’s our Calypso,” Aria said fondly. “There isn’t anything she can’t heal.”

Arturiel took a long time to stop weeping, though she was smiling the entire time. To be an immortal angel with the constant cord of positive energy charging your system with love and hope and then have it severed and replaced with something malignant that you were told was for all eternity was the kind of hell she wouldn’t wish on anybody. To suddenly be redeemed from that endless horror…Aria couldn’t imagine the relief the reborn angel must be feeling.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Arturiel repeated over and over as her shoulders shook, quicksilver tears running down her cheeks.

“Arturiel,” Calypso whispered gently. “It’s okay. You can’t become a demon again now. You’re safe.”

Arturiel pulled her head back and stared at Calypso with wide reverent eyes. “Never?”

“There is nothing anyone could do to turn you into a demon ever again,” Calypso confirmed with a gentle smile. “You will never have to suffer that fate again.”

“How?” Arturiel asked, her eyes searching Calypso’s face.

“There is a mechanism in the soul that allows for a reversal in the type of energy that flows through your meridians,” Calypso explained, her eyes disapproving. “I have removed the part of your body that makes that connection to the soul possible. I believe it was implemented by whoever created angels in order to revoke their power. It was flawed, however, and didn’t just revoke an angel’s power. It turned angels into demons when it should have been turning them into mortals.”

“That was by design,” Grodek declared in disgust. “They wanted demons to torment mortals until they had learned to become decent enough to ascend. The worst angels were turned into demons as punishment, though it was mostly politics. The boneheads mismanaging the program ostensibly didn’t grasp that making immortal demons would result in demons eventually figuring out how to defeat angels and turning them as well.”

“Why didn’t the higher ranking angels do something about it?” Clarice asked darkly. “Why would they leave angels who had done nothing wrong in the hands of demons?”

“Because it’s political,” Grodek spat bitterly. “Mortality is a prison for undesirables.”

“Who decided to start punishing angels by turning them into mortals then?” their mother asked curiously.

“The first three Seraphim,” Grodek grunted, eyeing them peculiarly. “The angels lived in the light realms to start with, and many of them were trouble. The Seraphim created the mortal realm as a place to imprison angels that couldn’t play nice and for those who were sick of immortality. Everything else they left in the hands of the Cherubim and Dominions to figure out, which is why it turned out so badly. Politics.”

Aria was starting to get an inkling of just how powerful a Seraph was. It was hard to imagine Calypso being one of the rulers of the cosmos, but it seemed to be the destiny in front of her.

“Are you ready, Grodek?” Calypso asked gently.

“Nope,” the imp shook his head grimly. “You’re not going to survive if I switch over now. They’ll swarm the place if they sense me back again. You need to go see the Lore Boar, wherever he’s hiding these days. Nothing else matters until you meet with it.”

“Do you know where Eden is?” Calypso asked him hopefully.

“It doesn’t stay in one place,” Grodek sighed in annoyance. “You’ll just have to figure out how to find it.”

He looked at Calypso with something close to respect before disappearing with a pop.

“I knew you could do it, Calypso,” Clarice declared with an exuberant grin. She walked over and hugged the two angels. “Welcome back to angelhood, Arturiel.”

Arturiel smiled radiantly as she leaned into the three angel hug. “Thank you, Clarice. Words could never describe how good it is to be back.”

“So how is your relationship with the North American Territory going to be, now that you are an angel?” their mother asked Arturiel musingly. “I’m assuming there are other’s like you who would like to become angels again.”

“You wouldn’t believe how many,” Arturiel laughed ruefully. “The Director has been masquerading as an evil demon for centuries in an attempt to mitigate the horrors demons inflict on humans. He has weeded out most of the truly evil demons in positions of power. There are a few angels we maintain regular contact with as well. They have to stay hidden due to how many demons are constantly on the lookout for angels.”

Aria studied Arturiel curiously. She could feel the vast difference in power between the two of them. The redeemed angel was only slightly more powerful than a human. She was an actual healer, though Aria could tell there were limits to what she could heal. It put it into perspective just how powerful Aria and her family were due to being raised by a Seraph. It made a lot more sense that the world had been taken over by demons knowing the average angel was on par with Arturiel’s power.

She glanced at Clarice and her parents, who seemed to be noticing the same disparity as they studied the reborn angel.

“So, what now?” Clarice asked with a raised eyebrow. “Calypso, would it take you this long to heal every demon that is worth redeeming?”

“It will only take a few seconds,” Calypso assured her. “Most of my time with Arturiel was trying to figure out how the mechanism that transformed her into a demon worked.”

“Arturiel, I don’t suppose you or anyone in your organization knows where to find Eden?” Clarice asked without much hope.

“There are some demons who are the equivalent of religious scholars,” Arturiel replied hesitantly. “You might be able to get some answers from them.”

“I suggest Aria, Lexi, and I go find Eden while Calypso transforms demons into angels,” Clarice suggested, with a questioning look at Aria.

Aria looked at her parents, who were both winged, golden eyed killing machines now. “Mom and dad, you would need to watch over Calypso while we are away.”

“You can count on us to keep her safe,” their mother announced with a steely glint in her eyes. “Anyone coming here looking for trouble will find it.”

“I’m a peaceful guy for the most part,” their dad declared with a smile. His eyes hardened as he continued. “But if anyone threatens those I love, I will do whatever I have to in order to keep them safe.”

“Okay then,” Clarice nodded with a satisfied smile. “That takes care of everyone here. Arturiel, can you introduce us to these people you mentioned might have information about where to find Eden? Did you want to stop by your offices to report back first? Or have you abandoned the envoy title?”

“I was very tempted to abandon the title,” Arturiel admitted guiltily. “But I can’t leave them behind now that I know they can be redeemed.”

“If they try to keep you against your will, we will come for you,” Calypso told her firmly.

Arturiel blinked, then stared at Calypso in shock. “Can you hear my thoughts?”

“Yep,” Calypso nodded, smiling slightly. “I used to only be able to hear human thoughts, but apparently I can hear some angels now too.”

“Oh,” Arturiel looked down at the ground, her cheeks turning pink.

“Now that I have interacted with you, I can feel where you are at and what your mental state is,” Calypso told her reassuringly. “If there is even a hint that you are in trouble, we’ll portal over and set Aria and Clarice loose.”

Arturiel looked up, her eyes tearing up as she smiled gratefully at Calypso.

“Yes, they really are that powerful,” Calypso told her firmly. “Aria and Clarice could destroy most of this world in a few hours. There isn’t anybody here strong enough to get in our way.”

Arturiel stared at Aria and Clarice in awe as her mind attempted to imagine the level of destruction they were capable of and failed.

Aria had been watching Calypso as she listened to Arturiel’s thoughts. She noticed a thread of light connecting the two of them and information passing in one direction. She tentatively reached out with a thread of her own, connecting to the same node she could see Calypso connected to. As it made contact, her eyes widened as she heard Arturiel speak without moving her lips.

I forgot how good it feels to be an angel. I can’t wait to tell the rest of them that they can be angels again. Aria heard the thoughts as if they were spoken aloud.

Clarice had been watching her shrewdly. She imitated the action, and her eyes widened as well. “I suppose this will make things easier.”

Calypso was watching the two of them interestedly as they finally discovered how to create the psychic link that she had used.

Can you hear me, Arturiel? Aria thought at the newest angel.

Arturiel looked at her strangely. “Yeah, I can hear you.”

Did she say something that I missed? Arturiel thought frantically, worried that she was being rude.

You’re not being rude, Aria assured her with a smile. I just wanted to make sure that you could hear me telepathically as well.

Arturiel gasped as she finally realized that Aria’s mouth wasn’t moving. Clarice laughed with delight and Aria felt a thread reach out to her and Calypso.

So now we’re back to mind reading again, Clarice declared eagerly. Get ready for some embarrassing thoughts!

Aria facepalmed and groaned. “Clarice, you keep your dirty thoughts to yourself.”

Oh, I will, she promised, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

“If Seraphim are the top of the order of angels, where did a seed come from to create another one?” their mother asked suddenly, her eyes puzzled.

Aria shared a look with Clarice, frowning at the implications. She turned to Arturiel with in sudden interest. “Arturiel, how old are you?”

“I’m immortal,” Arturiel replied, her eyes inquisitive. “I’ve been around for millions of years. Why?”

“Who sits above Seraphim in the order of angels?” Aria asked intently. “Are you an ascended human, or were you an angel to start with?”

“God sits above the Seraphim,” Arturiel answered slowly, as if it should be obvious. “No, I’ve never been human. Like I said, I’ve been around for millions of years.”

“Have you met God?” Aria asked doubtfully.

“Me?” Arturiel blanched, her eyes wide. “Heavens no. I’m at the bottom of the totem pole. Only Seraphim can speak with God.”

Her parent’s eyes were alight with interest as they moved closer to join in on the discussion.

“Is God a person?” their mother asked eagerly. “Or is God some kind of cosmic law?”

“God isn’t a person, like angels or humans,” Arturiel replied, uncomfortable under their intense scrutiny. “It’s the source for life. It’s where all of our energy comes from, this love that is flowing through our meridians.”

“What do you know about the different Seraphim?” their mother asked, her eyes intent.

“Not a lot,” Arturiel admitted. “There are only a few that interact with the Cherubim directly. I’ve heard there are three who remain apart from the other Seraphim and almost never interact with angels. They spend all of their time learning from God, if the stories are correct. Most of the stories claim Seraph Rendimus created the light realms and angels, but I overheard Azriel speaking a long time ago about how the three Seraphim that remain apart from the others were the first beings to exist, aside from God. Azriel is a Cherub, so you would think he would know, but most of the stories claim Rendimus created the other Seraphim to help him create the light realms.”

“What else do you know about these other three Seraphim?” their mother asked, a peculiar expression on her face. Aria stared at her mother curiously, wondering what idea had triggered these questions.

“Almost nothing,” Arturiel admitted with a sigh. “When I overheard Azriel speaking, it was long before the mortal realm existed. He said the three of them were working on a place where angels could go to learn how to experience new sensations. I’m guessing he was talking about the mortal realm, now that I think about it. Azriel said the divine instruments were made by the three Seraphim who remained apart.”

“What were their names?” their mother asked, her eyes fascinated.

“We were never told,” Arturiel shrugged helplessly. “You have to understand, the Seraphim were viewed with the same esteem that human religions revere God. Seraph Rendimus, Seraph Grodekiel, and Seraph Lucifer were the only Seraphim who interacted with angels, and saying their names was taboo.”

“Wait,” their father held up a hand, his eyes wide. “Seraph Lucifer? I thought he was a Cherub.”

“That’s what the local religions teach,” Arturiel responded with a wry shake of her head. “But they know less about the Seraphim than angels do.”

“Were all of the Seraphim dudes?” their father asked curiously.

“Dudes?” Clarice repeated with an amused expression. “As opposed to dudettes?”

“Exactly,” their father nodded with a grin reminiscent of Clarice.

“Um, no,” Arturiel answered awkwardly, clearly uncomfortable referring to Seraphim as dudes and dudettes. “Only six of the nine were male in appearance, according to the stories. Seeing a Seraph was extremely rare. Compared to you mortals, I’m old on a geological time scale, but I’m just a baby in comparison to the Seraphim. They have supposedly been around for billions of years. Some say they didn’t even have a beginning, they were just always there. Considering just how many angels there are, it’s not very strange that most of us have never seen a Seraph. It’s rare enough to even see a Cherub. The Seraphim almost never leave the highest light realm, and only Cherubim and Seraphim can go there.”

“So there were three female Seraphim,” their mother mused, her eyes lost in thought.

“What are you thinking about?” their father asked her with a raised eyebrow. “I know that look. You’ve thought of something.”

Their mother blinked, her eyes coming back into focus. “What? Oh, nothing much. Just wondering about life before mortality. I’ve always been curious about how much access we have to things like soul memory.” She glanced at Calypso and her daughters speculatively, frowning pensively.

“So how do Seraphim talk to God?” their father asked curiously, returning the conversation back to Arturiel. “Is it a sentient entity?”

“There is a reason only the Seraphim can communicate with God,” Arturiel explained patiently. “God is such a complex and multidimensional entity that only beings closer to that power and complexity can hope to communicate in a meaningful way.”

“So, Calypso will be able to speak with this God person?” Aria asked, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

Arturiel slowly turned to stare at Calypso, her eyes growing wide in sudden comprehension. “You’re a Seraph?” she whispered in a mixture of awe and horror.

“Yes,” Calypso nodded gently.

Arturiel dropped to her knees with her head to the ground, her hands shaking. “Please forgive my arrogance, Seraph.”

They all stared at Arturiel in shock, Calypso in dismay. Calypso dropped down to her knees and took Arturiel’s hands in her own. “Arturiel, I don’t know what you’ve been taught about Seraphim, but I do not now, nor will I ever require any manner of obeisance. Please, stand up and treat me like you were treating me before. I’m just a person, like you, but far more ignorant.”

Arturiel slowly raised her head, her eyes still wide with fear and awe. Calypso stood up, pulling Arturiel with her as she rose. The reborn angel looked like she might faint. Calypso sighed and pulled her into an embrace, flooding her meridians with love and acceptance. Arturiel gasped as the powerful emotions charged her soul, flooding the anxiety and fear out. She had to repeat the process several more times, as each time she released Arturiel the angel reverted back to anxious fear. By the third time, she finally stopped shrinking away in fear.

“I’m just over a hundred years old,” Calypso told the nervous angel softly. “You are millions of years old with untold knowledge and experience in that beautiful head of yours. If anything, I should be bowing to you.”

Arturiel’s eyes widened in horror at the suggestion, causing Clarice to snigger.

“Do you see what I’m getting at, though?” Calypso asked patiently. “Regardless of my station or power, I’m but a babe compared to you.”

“She really is a babe,” Clarice agreed lustily. “I’ve been saying that from day one.”

Arturiel gasped at Clarice’s comment, her face suddenly as white as a sheet.

Clarice shook her head and squared her shoulders. “There’s only one way we’re going to get this thought through her head,” Clarice declared, her eyes sparkling. She stepped up to Calypso and pulled her into a tight embrace, then glued her lips to Calypso’s.

Aria didn’t think Arturiel’s eyes could get any wider, but they did. She made choking sounds as her brain began misfiring. The kiss went on for quite some time. Aria felt warmth suffuse her core as she watched with interest, hoping to learn something.

When Clarice finally pulled away with a smile and a wink at Calypso, Arturiel seemed to have finally come out the other end of her crisis. She stared at Clarice and Calypso in awe and a touch of curiosity.

“I’ve never heard of Seraphim engaging in sensual acts with other’s before,” she said in a troubled voice.

“They’re missing out if they aren’t,” Calypso told her with a small smile.

Arturiel burst out with a nervous laugh, her eyes still a little wild.

“Listen, Arturiel,” Calypso spoke gently. “Most of what I do is what feels right. I feel some kind of intuition guiding me, and maybe that’s what this communication with God is, or maybe it is some kind of soul memory. If so, it’s telling me that things have gone very wrong, and I plan to fix that. An angel, no matter their station, should never feel anxious or fearful in the presence of a Seraph. I’m here to heal, protect, and love the rest of you. There is no room for fear in that role.”

Arturiel nodded slowly, her eyes filling with quicksilver tears as she stared at Calypso with something close to adoration. “I can’t believe I’m talking to a Seraph,” she gave a disbelieving laugh as she shook her head. “And that one is treating me like an equal.”

“We are equals,” Calypso insisted firmly. “We have different duties, but we both feel love, affection, and a desire to help others. I know myself well enough to state that there will never be a time when I see myself as anything but your equal.”

Aria blinked as she heard her sister’s voice in her head. “I’m pretty sure this God entity is doing some house cleaning. How else could a Seraphim end up here on earth? I think it has decided to shake up the management team.”

Aria nodded her agreement. “That seems to be where things are headed. Unless Calypso is one of the original Seraphim and has incarnated for some reason.”

“Now that’s an interesting thought,” Clarice responded, her eyes narrowing in thought. “What if she did come down here to fix things, but she has to start with the same rules as all mortals, having the memory of her former life blocked or something?”

“Maybe,” Aria frowned doubtfully. “If that were the case, shouldn’t she remember her old life, since she is an angel now?”

Clarice shrugged at her uncertainly, then turned to the rest of the group.

“And on that note,” she declared with a bright smile. “Let’s go find Eden and redeem some demons.”

Calypso stepped forward to open a gateway, but Clarice held up a hand with a wink. “I’ve got this.”

Aria watched her make a link with Arturiel. She did the same, curious about what she was looking for.

“Can you think of the place you want to go?” Clarice asked Arturiel.

Arturiel nodded, her face curious.

Aria saw the office in her mind as Arturiel thought of it. A moment later, Clarice opened a gateway into the center of the office. There was a man sitting at a desk, flipping his fingers through the air as holographic images and files scrolled through the air.

“Dang, you guys have all of the fancy tech, don’t you?” Clarice noted enviously.

The man jumped to his feet, his eyes wide with surprise. Aria wrinkled her nose at the stench. It wasn’t as bad as any of the others, but compared to Arturiel, it was definitely noticeable. When his eyes fell on the two Cherubim, he froze. His shoulders slumped in defeat as he felt the power emanating from them.

“I didn’t expect you to start cleaning house for a few more days,” he spoke conversationally, but Aria could see the fear in his eyes. She was pretty sure there weren’t very many things that could kill immortal beings, so facing one of them was probably unnerving. “So did you kill Arturiel already?”

“No, Peter, they did something much better,” Arturiel declared, her voice filled with excitement.

He finally noticed Arturiel, then staggered as he saw what she had become. “How?” was all that he could say.

“Calypso redeemed her,” Clarice told him with a friendly smile. “While you stink a lot more than Arturiel did, she says you’re a good person. Are you ready to become an angel again?”

He gaped at them, his eyes wide with disbelief. “That’s impossible! Demons can’t be turned back to angels.”

“Tell that to Arturiel,” Clarice suggested with a nod back to Arturiel. “Are you ready?”

His reptilian eyes grew suspicious as he studied Arturiel. “What did I tell you about demons when we first met?” he asked Arturiel, clearly not believing that it was really her.

“You told me that a demon was just like a human with an addiction to power, and that we could still be good people if we didn’t let our addiction rule us,” Arturiel responded with a smile. “I’ve thought of that talk many times over the centuries.”

The suspicion slowly faded from his face, replaced with a sudden hope. “Can she truly redeem demons?”

“Yes, Peter, and I can’t tell you how good it feels to be an angel again,” Arturiel replied, her voice thick with emotion. “I had always taken for granted this benevolent energy coursing through me when I was an angel. It was like coming back to life when she redeemed me.”

“What do I need to do?” he asked simply.

“Go through that gateway,” Clarice gestured behind her. “Calypso will do the rest.”

He slowly walked around the desk and moved to the gateway, staring at Arturiel in awe as he went. Calypso was waiting for him on the other side, with both of their parents flanking her protectively.

“Hello, Krajen,” Calypso greeted the demon, causing him to miss a step as she spoke his real name. “This will only take a second.”

He stopped in front of her, hope radiating off of him in waves. Calypso’s eyes grew brighter for a moment, then she burst into blinding light for a moment. When the light dimmed, the demon was no longer a demon. He gasped as his meridians were flooded with positive energy. His elongated pupils shrunk to circles and the irises turned a deep blue. Calypso pulled him into an embrace and burst into light again, supercharging him with loving energy. His shoulders began shaking as he wept with relief and joy.

“What has been done cannot be undone,” Calypso told him gently. “You will never be turned to a demon again.”

While the process to change a demon back into an angel was fast, the emotional aftermath was a lengthier process. When he returned through the gateway ten minutes later, his face was filled with joy and hope. There was a constant grin on his face as he walked toward his desk.

“I need to start gathering the rest of us,” he announced excitedly. “She said she can redeem us in groups.”

“I need to take Aria and Clarice to the theologians,” Arturiel informed Krajen as she pulled him into a hug. “They are looking for Eden.”

“I’ll get Dorian and Remus up here right away,” Krajen said quickly. “They’ll be your best bet for information on Eden.”

They waited for over an hour as dozens of demons gathered in the open office space outside of Krajen’s office. He hadn’t told them why he was gathering them, and the group of demons were abuzz with chatter as they discussed the possible reasons for their summons. Aria found it odd to see so many entities she had thought of as pure evil just days ago. They seemed so normal, like every day office workers as they waited for their boss to address them.

He finally opened the door and stood in front of the crowd. They grew quiet, then stared in astonishment as they took in his angelic form and presence. Before they could say anything, he began speaking.

“Some of you may be aware that there is a Seraph that is awakening on this world,” he began, his face still wearing a grin he couldn’t seem to help. “Calypso is that Seraph. She has figured out how to redeem demons so that we can once again become angels. If there are any among you who wish to remain as demons, please leave now.”

You could have heard a pin drop in the room as silence greeted him. After half a minute of silence, he turned back to the gateway behind him and nodded at Calypso. She walked forward, the power of her presence flowing out like a wave as she entered the building. The demons watched her in a mixture of fear and hope as she stopped in front of them. With a gentle smile, she burst into light as reached out with dozens of tendrils of energy and removed the offending portion of their being that allowed them to be transformed into demons.

There was a wave of gasps and cries of amazement as the dark energy filling them reversed and they began to fill up with light. Calypso blazed incandescently as she pushed her aura out into the crowd, charging them with light at an accelerated rate.

Aria smiled at Clarice as they witnessed the turning of the tide in the rule of demons on Earth. The new angels were hugging each other and laughing while crying as they basked in the positive energy they had been denied for so long.

As things calmed down, Krajen introduced Remus and Dorian to them. The two redeemed angels were difficult to talk with as they continued to rejoice in their unexpected redemption. After nearly twenty minutes of letting them revel in their restored forms, Clarice pushed the conversation forward.

“Remus. Dorian,” Clarice said crisply. “We need to find Eden. Do either of you have any idea where we can start looking?”

The two angels grew serious as they faced her warily. “We have some information about it,” they hedged cautiously.

Aria immediately made a telepathic connection to the two angels. They were terrible actors, and they clearly knew more than a little bit about it. Clarice also linked with them, as well as to Aria.

“We were told we need to find the lore boar to get answers to questions we have,” Clarice told them intently. “We were led to believe that it was in Eden, which is supposedly somewhere in this star system.”

We swore to never reveal the location of Eden to anyone else, Remus’s thoughts sounded like they were spoken aloud. But a new Seraph? There has to be some kind of exception.

“You don’t have to tell us where it is at if you would be breaking an oath,” Aria told them gently. “We will find another way to find it.”

They stared at her in shocked silence for several seconds.

“Can you hear our thoughts?” Remus asked in amazement.

“Yes, we can,” Clarice confirmed with a nod. “Aria’s right. If you are under oath, we can find another way to locate it.”

The two of them looked at each other uncomfortably. Remus finally spoke hesitantly.

“Well, our oath was to never speak of the location to another person,” he said slowly. “If we just happened to think of it, I don’t think that would break our oath.”

Aria smiled ruefully at their logic. “Only if you are comfortable with it,” she insisted, eyeing them gravely.

They didn’t answer, but their thoughts did. Aria blinked as she saw where it was in their thoughts.

On the freaking sun? she thought at Clarice in astonishment.

Their thoughts indicate the sun isn’t hot, Clarice replied, just as surprised. Apparently, another piece of science we have been misled on.

But the freaking sun? Aria exclaimed, unable to reconcile the impossibility.

“I’m guessing by the looks on your faces that you have what you need from us,” Remus noted with a chuckle. “You two were humans before you became angels, weren’t you?”

“Yeah…” Aria replied faintly.

“All angels know the sun isn’t hot, but of course humans are taught that it is a thermonuclear bomb,” Dorian chuckled, shaking his head in amusement.

“But I can feel the heat from the sun all the way on Earth,” Aria protested, her face baffled.

“You’re just seeing photons interacting with the atmosphere and creating heat from friction,” Dorian explained with a shrug. “It’s the same temperature on the surface as it is here.”

Aria goggled at them, her mind unable to unlearn that the sun was an inferno of atomic decay.

“Come on, professor,” Clarice pulled her away with a wry grin. “Thanks a lot, Dorian and Remus.”

“But it’s the sun!” Aria spluttered insistently.

“Yep,” Clarice nodded agreeably. “We should probably go get some clothes from Tamra now that it’s daytime. You realize we’ve been in our bras this whole time, right?”

Aria looked down at her chest and blushed furiously as she looked around in sudden embarrassment. “Come on, let’s get to Tamra’s.”

Calypso’s shoulders were shaking with laughter as she followed the two of them through the gateway. Aria shook her head in exasperation. Clarice was rubbing off on their Seraph. Two days ago, Calypso would have been blushing as much as Aria was.

“You’re so cute when you blush,” Clarice told her with a naughty grin.

“Shut up, Clarice,” Aria muttered as she closed the gateway behind them.

Chapter 16

“How much do we need to worry about the agency now that the demons in charge of this area are angels?” Aria asked as she stood waiting inside of Tamra’s living room. Their favorite tailor was finishing up their first set of clothes so that they would once again have something more than bras or pinned together shirts to wear.

“They don’t actually lead any of the human agencies or militaries,” Arturiel answered, watching Aria, Calypso, Clarice, and Lexi with fascinated eyes from where she sat on a chair. “They place demons in influential positions and pull the strings from the shadows, so to speak.”

Arturiel had been struggling to not be overwhelmed with the presence of the Cherubim and a Seraph. Her thoughts were even more entertaining than her warring expressions of awe and fascination.

I still can’t believe she actually kissed a Seraph! Arturiel thought wonderingly. I feel like I should be punished for how much I enjoyed watching, but they seem so relaxed and accepting that I can’t bring myself to feel too guilty.

Aria and Clarice would have won awards for keeping straight faces if there were awards for such things. Every once in a while, Arturiel would suddenly remember that they could hear her thoughts. Each time it happened, her face would freeze and then turn bright red. Aria, Clarice, and Calypso would pretend not to notice and she would soon forget again.

“What about the President?” Clarice asked curiously. “We were getting ready to go abduct him to find answers right before you showed up.”

“You were going to abduct the President?” Arturiel exclaimed in shock.

“We were just going to drop him through a gateway,” Clarice explained with a shrug. “We figured he would have some answers to our questions. Is he a demon?”

“We just use masks to play the role with different demons,” Arturiel responded faintly.

Why should I be surprised that they would abduct the President? Arturiel thought hysterically. They’re Cherubim. They can literally do whatever they want.

Aria sighed with a defeated look at Clarice. Her sister was staring at her triumphantly, her lips curled up into a victorious smile. “Okay, Clarice, you were right.”

“You’re damn right I was,” Clarice giggled, her golden eyes sparkling with amusement. “I’ve been saying the president was just a bunch of asshats in masks for years now. It’s not even hard to notice. Half of the time they are different heights.”

“I couldn’t help noticing that you don’t have wings,” Aria commented as she studied Arturiel curiously. “Did you have wings before you were turned into a demon?”

“Only archangels and higher ranks have wings,” Arturiel explained, looking down at the floor as she spoke.

“That’s why demons are using helicopters and flying saucers,” Aria exclaimed with sudden realization. “Because they didn’t have wings as angels. We just thought it was part of being considered fallen or something.”

“Exactly,” Arturiel confirmed with a nod. “the demon lords have wings and the power to make portals. Most of them were once archangels, though two of them were Dominions.”

“How powerful are they compared to a regular angel?” Lexi asked curiously. “Carcelonia made it sound like we would be wiped out as soon as one showed up.”

“There is a significant gap between the power of an archangel and an angel,” Arturiel informed her with an uncomfortable look.

They’re not nearly as forgiving if you don’t respect them either, Arturiel thought, briefly reliving memories of being reduced to a quivering wreck for not bowing low enough or answering without the proper amount of respect in her voice.

“If I ever see an archangel treat an angel like that, there will be one less archangel,” Clarice declared darkly, her golden eyes hard.

Arturiel blushed as she avoided their eyes, remembering once again that Cherubim could read her thoughts. Aria could sense her guilt at feeling mildly resentful toward the archangel who had frequently rebuked her.

“You should feel a lot more than a little resentment,” Aria told her firmly. “Nobody should ever be made to feel lesser than another person. If that particular archangel is still around, there is a day of reckoning in his future.”

Arturiel closed her eyes as she felt quicksilver tears form in her eyes. Warmth suffused her soul as she felt the love and protectiveness of the new Cherubim.

How different would things have turned out if we had leaders like these three, Arturiel thought warmly. Is this why we were sent to the mortal realm? To learn humility and vulnerability?

“How would an archangel compare to a Cherubim?” Lexi asked quizzically, clearly concerned about the eventual arrival of a demon lord or unfriendly archangel.

Arturiel barked out a laugh as she shook her head. “There is no comparison. Cherubim are one of the tools of judgement, one of the only classes of angel who can kill an immortal. No demon lord or archangel or any other class of angel would come near a Cherubim if they knew who they faced.”

“Is there more than one class of Cherubim?” Clarice asked, her eyes on Lexi. “Aria and I were directly transformed by Calypso, but my mom and Lexi were transformed by us. My dad was transformed by my mom, so he is three generations down from Calypso. We all have laser eyes, so I assume that makes us all Cherubim, doesn’t it?”

“That’s how I understand it,” Arturiel nodded, forcing herself to meet Clarice’s golden eyes without flinching away. “There are three levels of Cherubim. I was told that angels of the first triad always raised any human they converted into an angel one level beneath them. Mind you, most of that is rumor because we don’t really have any interactions with the higher triads. They are as mythical to us as angels are to humans. If that were the case, then anyone your father raised would be a Dominion. Each class of the angel hierarchy has three levels. The differences in abilities and power between Cherubim levels has never been revealed to common angels or archangels. The only thing I know about the difference between them is that the lower level cannot kill the higher level with their power, but the same is not true for the reverse.”

“I guess I can talk all of the smack I want without worrying that Lexi will fry my ass then,” Clarice grinned at Lexi.

“As if that would ever happen,” Lexi replied, her eyes soft and full of affection as she stared back at Clarice. “No amount of smack talk could ever make me want any harm to befall you.”

“Aw, come here you,” Clarice purred, walking over and embracing her fondly.

Lexi’s face was filled with contentment as she melted in Clarice’s arms.

The bonds of love between these angels is unbelievable, Arturiel thought, feeling her eyes moisten again as she witnessed the beginning of a new order of angels that was based on love and kindness. It feels so right, like this is how it was always meant to be for angels. Where did we go wrong?

“What was life like for you before demons took over the world?” Aria asked Arturiel, her eyes full of interest. “Did the humans know you were an angel?”

“There were some places where people were aware of us,” Arturiel nodded with a hint of a smile. “Common angels, like me, only appear to humans if they believe, so a lot of it was based on cultural traditions. You have some references in history to the time before demons took over, though most of it is highly inaccurate. Most of Greek and Roman mythology was based on the archangels and demon lords. They had an uneasy truce, but there were constant betrayals on both sides. The archangels were also breeding with mortals a lot in that period, resulting in hybrid angels. They were immortal but not invulnerable. They thought that creating hybrid humans would help bolster their numbers and power in the fight against demons. It turned into a disaster due to how much easier it was to turn a hybrid angel into a demon.”

“How do they turn an angel into demon anyway?” Clarice asked, her head resting against Lexie’s head.

“It’s not pleasant,” Arturiel replied bleakly, shivering at the memory. “They lock us in a room where they torture innocents. They give us the option to torture one ourselves, or watch them torture them one after the other until we give in. Harming a mortal with malicious intent is the trigger that transforms an angel into a demon. They compel you to continue harming innocents while forcing you to take agonite. For an angel, agonite isn’t the same kind of high it is for a demon. It floods our minds with doubt and confusion. In this confused state of mind, it is possible for them to manipulate you psychologically, until they convince you that harming an innocent is an enjoyable form of entertainment. It takes years for some of us to break. The longer it goes on, the more despair sets in as an endless line of innocents is tortured before your eyes. When the change occurs, your moral compass shatters, and you no longer have a sense for what is right or wrong. The only thing that matters is power.”

Calypso walked over and pulled Arturiel up from her chair and into a comforting embrace, her own eyes filled with tears. Aria stared as she noticed Calypso’s tears were now gold, not quicksilver.

“I’m so sorry you went through so much horror,” Calypso choked out, her voice thick with emotion. “I can’t even imagine enduring such cruelty.”

Arturiel’s eyes were wide with ecstasy as her meridians were flooded with Calypso’s overpowering love. A streak of gold trickled down Calypso’s cheek and landed on Arturiel’s head. There was a blinding flash of golden light and the two of them were enveloped in golden sphere of energy. Positive energy shot out of the sphere and into Arturiel, resulting in a seizure as her body shook in Calypso’s arms. Her body began to glow brilliantly as she vibrated in place. Aria watched as the nodes in Arturiel’s body were rewritten and expanded. There was a tearing noise as wings appeared on her back, ripping through her shirt. They were more birdlike than the wings Aria and her group had started with, looking very much like the winged angels in renaissance paintings.

“What…happened,” Arturiel panted, her eyes wide and rapturous. “I feel so much more alive.”

“You are an archangel of the first order now,” Calypso told her gently. “You are the kind of archangel this world needs.”

Aria stared at Calypso intently. She seemed to be receiving information from her soul memory. She was quickly moving into her role as a Seraph. Aria could feel her own power growing as Calypso grew. She wondered if they were tied together in their development.

“Me? An archangel?” Arturiel gasped in disbelief. “But angels can’t change their station.”

“And demons can’t be redeemed back into angels, right?” Clarice commented dryly. “You might be millions of years old, but you have a lot to learn if you think anything is going to stop Calypso from healing this broken cosmos.”

“I can’t believe how different this feels,” Arturiel breathed in wonder. “I thought being an angel felt wonderful after being a demon, but this…”

“You should try being a Cherubim,” Clarice told her with a wry smile. “During the first few days of our ascension, it was all I could think about. I’m still in a state of disbelief at how good I feel all of the time now.”

“Let me guess,” Tamra’s voice deadpanned as she joined them with an armful of shirts. “You need another set of shirts made.”

“Maybe?” Clarice admitted in a wheedling tone. “We seem to be multiplying. You’re going to have to add a dovecote onto your building for us to hang out in.”

Tamra laughed good naturedly as she began handing out clothing. “Clarice, only you would compare angels to pigeons.”

“We know an imp that compares us to a lot worse,” Aria informed her with a rueful shake of her head.

They donned the new shirts, all of them but Clarice doing so with relief. She was sighing regretfully as she watched Aria and Calypso buttoning up their shirts.

“These look amazing, Tamra,” Aria effused with a grateful smile. “It fits perfectly.”

Calypso, Lexi, and Clarice voiced their agreement and appreciation as well. Aria’s eyes were continually drawn back to Clarice and Calypso. Their shirt’s fit them like a glove, accentuating their narrow waists and generous cleavage. She felt her cheeks redden as Clarice caught her checking the two of them out. She gave Aria a slow, sensual wink that pushed the blush into the roots of her hair.

“You’re getting a little warm around the ears, Aria,” Clarice commented playfully. “I didn’t think angels could get sunburnt.”

“You’re a bad angel, Clarice,” Aria accused as she tried willing her blush to stop.

“I don’t blame you for checking us out,” Clarice declared innocently. “We’re smoking hot. Tamra really outdid herself with these.”

“I suggest going topless if you find yourself heading for a blackhole or another planet with super storms,” Tamra told them pointedly. “Otherwise, I don’t think I’ll be able to keep up. Where are you going next?”

“Funny you should ask,” Clarice replied in an exaggerated British accent. “It just so happens that we’re going to the sun.”

“I wouldn’t put it past you,” Tamra snorted with a sardonic smile. “You three have been jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire since I first saw your pretty little faces on YouTube last week.”

“She thinks I’m kidding, doesn’t she?” Clarice asked Aria archly.

“We could tell her that we have it on good authority that the sun isn’t actually hot,” Aria suggested playfully.

“I don’t think she’ll believe us,” Clarice noted with a sideways glance at Tamra. She had a sickly grin on her face as she realized they weren’t joking.

“It really isn’t hot,” Arturiel assured Tamra confidently. “It’s just a myth created to keep humans from trying to go there.”

Tamra stared at the new archangel steadily. “Even if it isn’t hot now, it will be when they get there, mark my words.”

“Damn right it will be,” Clarice crowed with a sly grin. “Cause we’re so freaking hot!”

That seemed to be the last straw for Arturiel. She burst out laughing so hard that she had to hang on to Calypso for support. Lexi joined in the laughter, gazing at Clarice like a favorite superhero.

“Arturiel, I probably have a shirt that will work for you until I can make something to your measurements,” Tamra informed the archangel. “Follow me and we’ll get you fixed up.”

Arturiel’s shirt hadn’t been torn to the point that the front detached, but it didn’t look like it was going to last much longer.

“Thank you, Tamra,” Arturiel said gratefully, her smile filled with warmth.

“I suppose we should get going,” Clarice noted as she eyed the other three appreciatively. “Four hotties going to the sun to party it up.”

“Arturiel, we’re going to leave a portal open to the cabin for you,” Aria told the new archangel, knowing she could hear them from the back room. “I’m guessing you plan to do some flying now that you have wings. Make sure to go with our parents in case you run into any trouble. I know you’re an archangel now, but better safe than sorry.”

“Thanks, Aria,” Arturiel replied, her voice filled with gratitude and excitement.

They walked out into the yard and opened a portal back to the cabin for Arturiel to use.

“Portal?” Clarice asked with a raised eyebrow as she looked up at the sun.

“Portal,” Calypso agreed, reaching out and opening a portal to the surface of the sun.

Brilliant light shown through the portal, but there was no inferno that scorched the earth around them, or their clothes. Aria went through first, her drive to protect Calypso pushing her through to scout the alien land.

She felt soft soil beneath her toes. No longer requiring shoes had been a nice perk of being invulnerable. The soil glowed under her feet, only sinking a little under her light weight. The glowing soil went on as far as even her eyes could see. She looked upward and marveled at the enormous ropes of magnetism arcing through the sun’s atmosphere. She flew up high into the sky until she was a few hundred miles above the glowing soil. Magnetic filaments warped around her as she stared down at the surface. She could see a coronal hole not too far from where they had set their portal. She looked to the south and found a large sunspot bubbling with magnetic froth.

The other’s joined her in the sky, their eyes wide with wonder. Aria felt like she was in a dream as she viewed the alien landscape in awe.

“The sun’s a big place,” Clarice remarked with a small smile. “It might take a while to find the lore boar.”

“Grodek said Eden was constantly moving,” Aria began thoughtfully. “What if that’s because the sunspots and coronal holes are some kind of entrance to an inner world? Sunspots are constantly opening and decaying.”

“Let’s go explore some sunspots,” Clarice suggested gleefully, raising her fist in the air…sky.

The four of them shot off toward the first sunspot at high speed. Aria marveled as they quickly drew closer. The magnetic ropes arcing high above the sunspots were a thing of beauty. The edges of the sunspot were like super-sized grand canyons that caved into the gaping hole that made up the sunspot. Aria plunged into the hole eagerly, filled with curiosity for what lay inside.

None of her preconceptions were anywhere near the reality of what lay within. Rolling green hills and enormous oceans spread out below them, tens of thousands of miles beneath the outer shell of the sun. Mountains dozens of miles high rose up above the oceans and grasslands.

“I guess it’s the hollow earth theory, but for the sun,” Clarice marveled as she gazed into the distance. “A whole world hiding inside of our sun.”

“A freaking huge world,” Lexi added in amazement. “Isn’t the sun a million times bigger than earth?”

“The outer shell is,” Aria confirmed with a nod. “However, we dropped down about eighty or ninety thousand miles, so it’s not nearly as large as it would have been if the land down here was closer to the outer shell.”

“Where should we start looking?” Lexi asked eagerly as she turned in circles to view the world beneath them.

“We’re supposed to be looking for a garden,” Calypso reminded them, her eyes filled with wonder. “Let’s do a high-speed survey around the world so that we have an idea of what’s here.”

“Good idea,” Clarice congratulated Calypso, flying over and giving here a quick hug. “Sorry, Calypso, I just realized I haven’t gotten a hug from you in almost four hours.”

“Never apologize for hugging me,” Calypso told her with a loving smile. “I can never get enough hugs.”

“I hear that,” Clarice agreed, moving on to Aria with a grin and pulling her into a hug. She held her for several seconds, and Aria realized that her sister wasn’t just feeling affectionate; something was wrong with her.

“What’s the matter, Clarice,” Aria whispered, holding her tightly and stroking her hair tenderly.

She felt Clarice tremble in her embrace and a sob escaped her as she attempted to speak.

“Shhh,” Aria whispered soothingly. “We’re here for you. I’ll always be here for you, Clarice, no matter how crazy things get. I love you.”

Aria held her sobbing sister for nearly ten minutes before the weeping storm subsided enough for her to try and talk.

“I’m sorry, Aria,” Clarice sobbed, still struggling to speak. “It all just hit me like a freight train while I was admiring the beauty here. They tortured children so that they could turn angels into demons. I saw it in her thoughts, the endless torment and anguish. Innocent angels like Arturiel. It happened across the whole world, and they’ve been stuck in that never ending nightmare for thousands of years. What kind of god would allow this to happen to his angels? What kind of god lets demons defile his angels and turn them into abominations?”

Calypso flew over and wrapped her arms around the two of them, pulsing with love and sympathy. “I’m so sorry, Clarice,” Calypso whispered sadly, kissing her forehead. “I don’t know what led to this horror, but I can promise you that I am going to fix it and never let it happen again. I wish I could take your pain away, dear one.”

Lexi slowly drew close to them, her eyes full of sympathy. She caressed Clarice’s cheek tenderly, wiping her tears away. “I don’t think there is a god, Clarice. I think it’s just all of us, making one giant mind that can’t comprehend individual suffering on a small timeline. Something has arranged for us all to be here together now, to begin fixing the sickness within our collective mind. The entity everyone calls god is just our minds that have been sick. We are the cure. We are going to fix this mind fuck that has afflicted everyone and make everything right again. I promise.”

Aria stared at Lexi, impressed at her abstract reasoning. She had the equivalent of an eighth-grade education, so it was easy to forget that there was an intelligent mind hiding behind that beautiful face. She had probably had a lot of time in captivity to ponder the injustices of the world and come to terms with the harsh realities of life.

Clarice took a deep breath as she soaked in the love and comfort from the other angels supporting her. “Thank you. I knew that was going to come out soon. It’s been writhing beneath the surface of my awareness for a while now.”

“You’ll be dealing with mine soon enough,” Aria warned her with a peck on the forehead. “But I know you’ll be there for me. We’ve got each other for all eternity.”

Clarice closed her eyes as a few more tears leaked out. “Aria, I’m so lucky to have you. Eternity seems less daunting, with you by my side.”

“Not just Aria,” Lexi told her firmly. “I’ll be right here with you, every step of the way. As will Calypso. You’ll never face anything alone.”

Calypso’s arms tightened in unspoken agreement.

“Okay, I think I’m ready,” Clarice smiled tremulously, her eyes filled with resolve. “Let’s go find a boar.”

Aria squeezed her tightly one last time before letting her go. She knew Clarice’s mischievous nature and humorous personality masked a deeply compassionate and vulnerable soul. The horrors they had witnessed this past week would have totally crushed them if they hadn’t had each other to lean on. She made a mental note to give Clarice more attention and time to detox in the future. She clearly needed to talk through some of those traumatic memories.

“We’re going to talk some more when we get back,” Aria promised her sister with a reassuring smile.

Clarice nodded, smiling back at her with no humor, just pure love.

“I think I see something of interest,” Calypso notified them with a gesture toward a spec in the distant sky.

“Let’s go investigate,” Clarice suggested, her eager smile back on her face. She shot forward like a falling star, streaking through the sky.

Aria flashed forward, flying shoulder to shoulder with her.

“It’s a floating island,” Clarice whispered in awe. “I guess it never heard of the law of gravity.”

The island was rocky on the underside, with waterfalls dropping over the edge of the land, making a curtain of mist below it. The top was lush with green, lavender, red, pink, blue, just about every color in the rainbow flowering out of the different trees. In the center of the enormous sky island there was a tree that staggered the mind with its immensity. It was the size of a mountain range, towering hundreds of miles into the air. There were small huts and crude buildings scattered around the base of the tree near the center.

“If this isn’t Eden, it must be Eden’s older sibling,” Clarice declared with a whistle of amazement. “That is one big ass tree.”

“Big ass tree of life,” Aria corrected with a grin.

Clarice grinned back at her.

“Shall we go see if the locals know where the lore boar hangs out?” Aria asked as she began the descent toward the crude city.

“Oink oink,” Clarice replied with an exaggerated snort.

There was an opening in the center of the primitive city where a circle of stones that looked like a completed version of Stone Henge stood. There were people walking around the dirt roads of the city. They were dressed in colorful garb that seemed geared more toward fashion than function. It left a lot of skin visible on bodies that belonged on Olympic statues. Aria thought they would be angels, but as they drew closer, she realized they had human meridians. At least, partially human.

“I think these are hybrid angels,” Aria observed as they landed in the Stone Henge replica. Several people had noticed them as they dropped out of the sky. Some of the people ran away quickly while others approached them cautiously.

“Hello!” Clarice called out to them cheerfully, waving her hands with a friendly smile. “I don’t suppose you speak English?”

The puzzled expressions were answer enough.

Aria sent a tendril of energy to the thought node of the nearest woman, a tall blonde with a lithe figure and brilliant blue eyes.

I thought the angels were just myths! Aria’s mind translated the woman’s thoughts.

My name is Aria, Aria thought to the woman, eliciting a startled squawk as the woman took a step back warily.

We mean you no harm, Aria sent the thought with a wave of love and comfort. What’s your name?

The woman’s eyes widened as she felt the surge of love wash over her. Zerune is my name.

It’s nice to meet you, Zerune, Aria smiled warmly. We are from Earth in search of something called the lore boar. Do you have any idea where we can find it?

You are speaking into my mind? The woman asked in shock.

Yes, we don’t speak your language, so we will have to rely on thoughts, Aria explained.

The woman frowned as Aria’s thoughts appeared in her head. She seemed to struggle with the concept of different languages.

“I guess if they’ve been here for who knows how long, it’s no wonder they don’t know what a foreign language is,” Clarice commented wryly.

The woman continued staring as she heard them speaking English, finally seeming to comprehend what a foreign language was.

You are from a place called Earth? Zerune asked in confusion. Is it up in the sky?

Aria nearly facepalmed as she realized they were spawning a new round of religions with their appearance and claims to be from somewhere beyond the heavens. She restrained her desire to sigh and patiently sent mental images of their journey from Earth to the sun, along with images of their cities and the humans that populated her world. She relived the memory of their journey via portal to the surface of the sun and the inner world beneath the light shell.

Zerune stared at her in shock and awe as the memories flooded into her mind. When the thought of some kind of sentient boar creature passed through to Zerune, the hybrid human’s eyes lit up with recognition.

He lives inside of the tree, Zerune informed her, a dubious frown on her face. He is a very…unusual creature.

How so? Clarice’s questioned her curiously.

He’s very…flatulent and kind of disgusting, Zerune answered with a distasteful expression. He doesn’t make very much sense most of the time.

We were told he responds well to delicious foods and entertainment, Clarice thought, smiling slightly as she thought of Zerune’s description of the boar. Is there any truth to that myth?

Oh, he definitely likes fine foods and entertainment, Zerune chuckled ruefully. He’s very vocal about substandard food and entertainment.

More people had gathered around Zerune, gawking at the angels in amazement. When Zerune laughed, the other Edenites stared at her in confusion.

Would you mind explaining to the others who we are and what we are doing here? Aria asked, casting a friendly smile at the growing crowd.

I’ll try, Zerune responded dubiously. It will be difficult to explain in a way they can understand.

I’ll take care of it, Calypso announced, her eyes scanning the crowd. A moment later, dozens of tendrils of energy shot out of Calypso and connected to the hybrids. She quickly offloaded a memory dump similar to what Aria had done with Zerune.

The citizens stared at them in awe as the memories and thoughts completed. Having more of your neighbors comprehend what we are and where we are from should make it easier for you to explain to the rest of your kind, Calypso thought helpfully, smiling warmly at the gathered crowd.

Calypso pushed her aura out, filling the hybrids with love. They gasped, their eyes wide with ecstasy as they felt the force of her emotional presence, their eyes filling with tears.

“Let’s go see what the lore boar thinks of divine music for entertainment,” Clarice suggested with a wink at Calypso. “He’ll never get a better chance to hear transcendent music.”

Calypso winked back at Clarice with a smile of her own, resulting in a startled giggle from Clarice. Calypso’s personality was definitely being influenced by Aria’s vivacious sister. She was blossoming in the light of friendship, flourishing as the century of lonely solitude was left behind her.

They floated up into the air and moved toward the enormous tree of life. There was a path at the edge of the city that led up to a crack in the face of the tree. Aria marveled at the sheer size of the brilliantly white tree. The face was smooth and hard, with tiny white veins creating a complicated pattern that covered the entire tree. The veins emitted a soft glow, enhancing the white tree’s brilliance.

They landed at the opening in the tree and entered the illuminated hallway. It led them deep inside of the tree, terminating at a stadium sized room. There were small trees growing around the room with glowing white fruit hanging heavily on the tree limbs. In the center of the room there was a large stump with a boar the size of a house sitting with its back legs crossed in front of it, more reminiscent of a human sitting than a boar. Large tusks jutted up from its lower jaw. It looked over at them as they entered, intelligent blue eyes curious. There were other creatures arrayed around it, all of them focused on the giant boar. It looked like a classroom in session.

“I guess we found it,” Clarice murmured in fascination. “It’s huge.”

Aria felt a sense of shock as she stared at the beast. There was something so familiar about it. She felt a powerful connection to the giant boar that she couldn’t make sense of.

“Greetings, children of the skies,” the boar boomed in a voice that shook the trees. “It has been some time since I have seen one of your kind.”

“Hello,” Calypso smiled at the boar, her eyes curious. “You speak our language?”

“I speak all languages,” the boar replied in his booming voice. As he finished speaking there was a blast of flatulent air that thundered throughout the cave.

Aria looked at Clarice warningly, but it was futile. Her sister’s shoulders were shaking as she covered her mouth with a hand and tried to hold back her mirth. At Aria’s glare she lost what little restraint she had and began laughing hysterically. Calypso was watching her with a patient smile while Lexi covered her own mouth to hide a grin. Just when it seemed like Clarice would recover, another thunderous blast of flatulence blew out of the lore boar’s backside and sent Clarice into another fit of uncontrollable giggles.

“Sorry about her,” Aria apologized to the giant bore with a resigned sigh. “She’s still an adolescent at heart.”

“I’m accustomed to this reaction,” the lore boar boomed. “Many of the residents of Eden react similarly.”

“Do you know why we have come to see you?” Calypso asked him curiously.

“Do you know why you have come to see me?” he replied with a raised eyebrow.

“Mainly because we were told to seek you out by Grodek,” Calypso responded, her face becoming thoughtful. “However, I have questions that I’m told you may be able to help me with.”

“What have you brought in exchange for these answers?” the boar asked sternly.

Calypso’s hand disappeared into a hole in the air, reappearing a moment later with her harp. “A song, if it pleases you.”

The lore boar stared at the harp, his eyes narrowing. “With that harp?”

“If that is okay with you?” Calypso asked hesitantly. “I can use a different one, if you prefer.”

The lore boar closed his eyes and let out a gusty sigh of relief that blew the leaves off of some of the trees. “All things must come to an end,” he breathed in a quieter voice. “Play for me, Seraph.”

Calypso stared at him in concern. “Will this harm you?”

The boar smiled gently, his eyes tired. “It will complete me.”

Calypso hesitated, studying him with worried eyes. She was clearly seeing something more than Aria as she studied the boar.

Aria switched to her spiritual eyes, then gasped at the dizzying array of nodes and energy lines connected to the enormous bore. He looked like microchip, connected to uncountable energy distribution points. A large number of the points were directly connected to Aria.

“Please, Seraph, play for me,” the boar implored, its tired eyes filled with longing.

Calypso nodded slowly, her eyes filled with compassion. She began plucking a melody with skilled fingers as the lore boar watched with weary eyes.

The room reverberated like a bell with each string plucked. Power flooded the room as the glowing walls of the tree blazed with light. Calypso began singing, her voice intertwining with the melodies from the harp. As soon as her voice joined the harp the room became a cyclone of power, spinning around them like a giant maelstrom of light. Aria knew if they had been anything but Cherubim that the power would have scoured their immortal bodies to dust. The beauty and power of the song was unlike anything she had ever heard Calypso play. She dropped to her knees and closed her eyes as the transcendent music reforged her spirit anew. She could feel her nodes expanding and connecting to distant repositories of knowledge and power. The song flailed reality until the room became nothing but overwhelming emotional essence.

Calypso was blazing brighter than the sun as she once again rewrote reality. Aria felt like her soul had been completely saturated by the sublime power raging in the maelstrom around her. As the final notes died away, she opened her eyes. Calypso stood in front of her harp, golden tears spilling down her cheeks. Where the lore boar once sat, a golden tin whistle lay resting on the stump. She felt an immediate connection to the instrument, as if it were a part of her that had been lost.

Clarice rushed over to Calypso, pulling her into a comforting embrace. Aria had been so distracted by the new divine instrument that she hadn’t noticed how distraught Calypso was. The Seraph was shaking like a leaf with golden tears running down her cheeks. Sorrow emanated away from her in waves as she buried her face in Clarice’s shoulder.

Aria walked over to Calypso and placed a hand on her shoulder. “What is it?”

“I destroyed him,” Calypso sobbed, her voice filled with remorse.

“No. You didn’t,” Aria assured her gently. “He’s still here.”

Aria flew up to the stump and retrieved the tin whistle. The call to be held grew stronger as she came closer to it. When her hand grasped it, she felt an electric jolt shoot through her soul as a missing piece was finally reunited. Smiling with joy, she descended back to where Calypso was watching her hopefully, her tears slowing to a trickle.

“It transformed,” Aria told her with a brilliant smile. “It was always a part of my soul. I don’t know how my soul was divided, but my soul is finally whole again.”

Aria lifted the tin whistle to her lips and began playing the melody of her soul. Bittersweet power washed throughout the room as her divine instrument manipulated and warped the fabric of reality. Golden light washed through her and the other angels as she played, binding them together ever tighter as their souls were joined to each other. She could feel their emotions almost as if they were her own, their hopes and fears.

They stared at her in wonder as they felt the link binding them together. Lexi’s eyes were wide as she finally felt the intense love they felt for her and each other. She would never have to doubt that she was loved again. A deep wound in Lexi’s soul filled up with light and sealed shut as she was conclusively convinced of her worth to the rest of them.

“So, you’ve been a Gemini this whole time?” Clarice asked with a mischievous smile. “I’m going to start calling you my little piggy.”

“Not unless you want to go to market,” Aria warned her threateningly.

Clarice threw her head back and laughed, filling the air with joy.

“How much did we evolve?” Aria inquired, studying her angel family curiously.

Physically, Aria couldn’t see much of a difference in the others. The only visible change was a slight glow that seemed to emanate from beneath their skin. It wasn’t anything like the incandescent glow that occurred when their nodes switched to aggression, just a constant ambient glow.

The less visible changes were far more dramatic. Aria could feel a direct link to all of the realms now, including the higher light realms. “I think we can travel to all of the other realms now,” she told them contemplatively. “I also feel a connection to something similar to the intuitive knowledge base that Calypso described. I think I could probably speak all of the languages now.”

“It’s so weird seeing you like this,” Clarice breathed, her eyes intent. “It’s like you’ve been hiding a part of yourself from me all these years and now I can see it, now that you are complete. I can sense the power within you has increased dramatically. I wonder if there is a part of me floating around somewhere too.”

“I think I could point to any of you even if I was blindfolded now,” Lexi commented, her lips pursed. “I feel like you are part of me now too.”

“Like a wart,” Clarice grinned impudently at her.

Lexi laughed, eyeing Clarice fondly. “I can even feel your emotions.”

“I wonder if it is like this for fully evolved Seraphim and their Cherubim too,” Calypso said thoughtfully. “I don’t think that it is. Maybe that’s why things went so wrong before.”

“Found you,” a malevolent voice growled in satisfaction. “And you even led me to Eden.”

Aria wrinkled her nose as a wave of overpowering demon stench filled her nostrils. She stared at the winged demon lord who had appeared across the room from them. Large ram horns adorned a scaly head. He was seven feet tall, with backward knees and legs that ended in hooves. Bright red eyes with reptilian pupils stared at them triumphantly as the demon lord smiled cruelly.

“You found us alright,” Clarice agreed, wrinkling her nose and waving her hand in front of it. “Dude, you stink worse than a dead fish in a hot tub.”

“I like an angel with spirit,” the demon lord’s cruel smile widened. “It’s much more fun to break.”

“Did you really just say that you like a girl with spirit?” Clarice demanded in disgust. “Did they teach that phrase at villain school? Talk about cliché.”

The demon lord flashed across the space between them in a split second, his hand shooting out for Clarice’s neck. His eyes widened as she snatched his hand out of the air and threw him across the room with enough force to leave a demon shaped imprint on the wall.

“Do we want to offer to turn it back?” Clarice asked Calypso reluctantly. “Or can I just kill it now.”

The demon lord was back on his feet, staring at Clarice with narrowed eyes. It made a gesture, and the air was suddenly filled with a thick white mist. Aria recognized the smell of agonite in the air from Arturiel’s memories and stopped breathing. The demon lord watched them smugly as he slowly walked toward them. Calypso plucked a single string on her harp and the agonite flashed out of existence. The demon lord fell to his knees with his hands to his head, screaming in pain as the divine instrument seemed to cause him spiritual harm. Aria blurred over to him and held him by the throat. He struggled to break free of her grip but might as well have been a baby for all of the good it did him.

“What the hell are you?” he demanded, his eyes full of sudden fear.

“We are the future,” Aria told him coldly. “I’m going to make you an offer, and you have one chance to accept it. Do you want to become an angel again?”

His face filled with hate and his lip curled in disgust. “Fuck you and your god. I can’t wait to return and feast off your despair as we slowly suck the virtue out of your sanctimonious soul.”

He flickered but failed to vanish. Aria smiled grimly down at it as it repeatedly tried to teleport out of her grasp. “Goodbye, demon lord.” She fired her beam into one of his core nodes near his neck. He had time to widen his eyes in terror before he was vaporized.

“One less demon lord to deal with,” Aria declared in satisfaction, turning back to the others.

“He was one of the original fallen Dominions,” Calypso said with a frown.

“How could you tell?” Lexi asked curiously.

“After seeing Arturiel’s meridian bandwidth I had an idea of what to expect from a demon lord who had previously been an archangel, but his were much larger,” Calypso explained with a sigh. “I was hoping we could save him.”

“I’m sorry, I should have asked if it was okay to vaporize him,” Aria apologized, feeling foolish. “I guess you could have changed him whether he wanted to be changed or not.”

“I’m not second guessing your choice,” Calypso told her reassuringly. “I’m pretty sure he would have been an evil angel as well. There’s a reason they were cast out and turned into demons. Arturiel said there were two dominions who were turned into demon lords. That means there is one more somewhere.”

“How do you think he found us?” Lexi asked with a puzzled crease to her brows.

“We did just play two divine instruments,” Calypso pointed out thoughtfully. “We all evolved a lot too. Our nodes were making a lot of connections to the other realms. I would imagine that made some noise.”

“It made a lot of noise,” Grodek growled, appearing on top of the tree stump. His scaly skin was blue, rather than the red she remembered. “You’ll have some celestial visitors before long.”

“Will they attack us?” Aria asked warily.

“Unlike that jackass you just atomized, the higher triads could sense the power of divine instruments,” Grodek barked an ugly laugh. “Those worthless politicians will be too terrified to attack you outright. They’ll try guile or a metaphorical dagger in the night. They want those instruments, and they’ll sell their own Seraph out to get their hands on them. Not that the instruments would do anyone else any good, considering only a Seraph can play them.”

“How did you know part of my soul was here?” Aria asked, feeling a sense of gratitude to the ugly little imp for pushing them to find this place.

“Maybe someday you’ll remember,” Grodek shrugged indifferently. “Maybe not.”

“Are you ready yet?” Calypso asked him gently.

“Nope,” he shook his head with a sour expression. “You’re still outmatched by a huge margin. You need the other two instruments if you plan to win this battle. You’ll have to find them quickly too. I’m sure the other Seraphim have finally taken notice of you. They’ll be preparing nasty surprises to stop you from changing the status quo. You definitely don’t want them to find the instruments before you do.”

“Couldn’t you help more if she changed you back?” Lexi asked with a puzzled frown.

“No, you don’t need one more angel for the forces arrayed against you yet,” the imp replied gruffly. “You need someone misdirecting them and keeping an eye on the fudge monkeys that want you dead. There’s a reason they haven’t already moved on you with overwhelming numbers.”

“Does it seem wrong to anyone else that the ones we have to worry about the most are the ones that are supposed to stand for truth and justice?” Clarice asked dryly.

“The only thing they stand for is maintaining their own power,” Grodek sneered in disgust. “You’re dealing with beings who have never felt pain or loss. They are emotionless monsters who are militaristically obsessed with order and control, and they’re terrified of death. You’ll find no sympathy, empathy, or grace in the light realms. The only difference between demons and angels is that demons enjoy tormenting their victims.”

“Not for long,” Calypso replied quietly, her eyes filled with resolve. “If I have to make Seraphim experience mortality to understand virtue, I will.”

Grodek stared at her appraisingly. The way she spoke didn’t sound like a threat; it sounded as inexorable as gravity. There was an undercurrent of authority in her words that even the imp found compelling.

“I don’t suppose you have any ideas of where to look for the other two instruments?” Clarice asked Grodek hopefully.

He glanced at her, his eyes flat and unfriendly. “Earth. They aren’t in one piece though, and nobody knows where all the pieces are. There’s a foolish monk in a cave near the top of Everest that has a part of one. There is a piece of the second one in Madjack’s possession. He’s a regular jackass that roams the Rocky Mountains playing pranks on unsuspecting humans. Just follow the stories of people claiming to see bigfoot or getting abducted by aliens. After that, you’ll just have to find the rest of them yourself. If you’re lucky, the pieces will have a resonance you can use to find the other pieces.”

Aria stared at the imp curiously. He had completed an entire conversation without mocking them. Something had changed drastically in his opinion of them since their first meeting. Was it Calypso and her natural innocence that had softened his little demon heart? Then again, he was blue now; maybe he had a friendly twin and it wasn’t even him.

He vanished a moment later, no farewell or final quip.

“Is it my imagination, or has he gotten a lot nicer?” Lexi asked with a small smile.

“I think Calypso won him over,” Aria responded with a fond smile at Calypso. “It’s hard not to love Calypso.”

Calypso smiled back at her with eyes full of love. Aria still couldn’t believe they had only been with her for a little over a week. It seemed like a lifetime ago that they had met with her at the hospital.

“Let’s check on the family,” Clarice suggested, opening a gateway back to the front lawn of their cabin. “I want to make sure no demon lords have tried to invade while we were gone.”

“Good idea,” Aria agreed, quickly moving toward the gateway. Before she could get through the portal, the edges of the gateway warped and twisted, seeming to bounce around in place.

“Hey, no free rides,” a petulant voice declared, seeming to come from the gateway itself. “Do you expect me to just cart your butts around without anything in return?”

Aria shared a startled look with the other angels before looking back at the buoyant gateway.

“Did the gateway just talk to us?” Lexi asked disbelievingly.

“I’m a portal, not a gateway, you troglodyte,” the portal snapped peevishly.

“So…you’re a sentient portal?” Aria asked faintly.

“Well, are you talking to me?” the portal demanded airily. “Do you just like asking self-evident questions?”

“I guess I do,” Aria admitted slowly. “This is getting so surreal.”

“Hey, portal, we have places to be,” Clarice declared imperiously. “What do you want?”

“I’ll settle for some experiences,” the portal replied slyly. “If you are willing to part with some of your experiences for a little while, you can go through.”

“Aria, make another portal,” Clarice said with a distrustful glare at the talking portal.

Aria squinted at the array of meridians that she needed to form a portal to Earth. “This thing has tied up all of the meridians we need to make a portal.”

“Let’s fly back then,” Clarice suggested firmly. “I don’t trust this thing even a little.”

“Fine, fine, you drive a hard bargain,” the portal spoke quickly, a note of desperation in its voice. “You can go through if you allow me to see some of your memories. I won’t take them.”

“Why do you want our memories?” Aria asked dubiously.

“Do you have any idea how boring it is to be a portal?” the petulant tone was back. “I just want something to fill the boredom.”

“I say we fly,” Clarice pushed, eyeing the portal doubtfully. “We’re essentially trusting that thing to warp reality enough that we can step across insane distances in an instant. I’m pretty sure adding personalities to things like doors and portals always turns out bad, if Douglas Adams taught me anything.”

“Okay, I’ll just look at one memory,” the portal sighed in defeat.

“Are you four going to come through or just stay over there all day?” their mother’s voice came from the other side of the portal. Aria watched as their mother exited the cabin and walked up to the other side of the portal on the lawn to wait for them.

“Our portal came to life and is bargaining for passage,” Clarice told their mother in exasperation. “I say we just fly back.”

“You fly back,” Aria told her with a grin. “I’m going via portal. I’d rather not lose all of my clothes again flying through the sun’s corona. We’re Cherubim. What could happen to us?”

“Now that you put it that way?” Clarice asked archly. “Just about anything.”

Aria grinned at her and walked through the portal. She turned around on the other side. “See? No problem.”

Clarice glared at the portal for several seconds as she debated with herself. Calypso patted her shoulder and walked through. She turned around and faced Clarice with an expectant look.

“Fine,” Clarice grumbled, gesturing at Lexi to go ahead of her. Lexi had been waiting to see what Clarice decided. She was clearly going to follow wherever Clarice led.

Clarice followed Lexi through, clenching her jaw as she passed through the arch. She turned around after exiting to stare at the portal distrustfully.

“Looks like you four have changed a lot,” their mother observed as she studied them curiously. “You feel…immense. And you’re glowing.”

“You’re looking pretty fat too, Mom,” Clarice retorted with a playful glare.

Their mother gave Clarice a level look and shook her head. “I see you haven’t changed that much. Did you find the lore boar?”

Clarice suddenly dissolved into a fit of giggles. Their mother squinted at her suspiciously as Clarice stood bent over with her hands on her knees, overcome by mirth.

“I take it there’s a story there,” their mother noted with a wry look at Clarice.

Clarice stood up and gestured grandly at Aria. “I present to you, the lore boar!”

As she finished, she dissolved into another fit of giggles. “This little piggy went to market.”

“She’s lost it, I see,” their mother sighed with a rueful shake of her head.

Calypso took pity on their mother and quickly explained the encounter. Their mother stared at Aria curiously, clearly sensing the increased presence her daughter exuded now.

“The price has been paid, the contract completed,” the portal declared formally, then dissolved.

“I want some pancakes,” Aria declared, looking imploringly at their mother. “Mom, can you make me some pancakes? I can help.”

Their mother stared at her, nonplussed. “Aria, you don’t have a stomach. What would you do with the pancakes?”

“Can I paint my room black?” Clarice asked their mother hopefully. “I want to try the gothic look for a while.”

“What has gotten into you two?” their mother asked in bewilderment.

“I want to get a nose piercing,” Lexi declared eagerly. “Do you think it hurts?”

Calypso frowned at the three Cherubim in puzzlement. “Aria, how old are you?”

“How could you forget my age?” Aria asked in an injured tone. “I’m almost nine.”

Chapter 17

“Uh oh,” Emily groaned wearily. “I don’t think I can handle them going through adolescence again.”

“Hey Clarice, do you want to go to the movies with me?” Lexi asked shyly.

“How old are you, Clarice?” Calypso asked patiently.

“Still thirteen,” Clarice replied, rolling her eyes. “Did you think it was going to change overnight?” She looked at Lexi with an appraising eye. “Sure, I’ll go to the movies with you.”

“And how old are you, Lexi?” Emily asked wryly.

I just turned fourteen a few days ago,” Lexi replied importantly. “I’m old enough to go on dates now.”

“Sure you are,” Emily facepalmed.

“What’s going on out here?” Eric asked as he joined them. “It sounds pretty weird so far.”

“Apparently, that portal messed up their memories,” Calypso explained slowly. “We need to figure out how to unscramble their memories.”

“So can we make pancakes, Mom?” Aria asked, her eyes pleading.

“Sure, Aria, we can make some pancakes,” Emily answered in a troubled tone.

Aria let out a loud blast of flatulence and her voice suddenly boomed loud enough to shake the windows of the cabin. “Their minds have been trapped in childhood objects. Find the objects and destroy them to free their memories.”

“This is the part of Aria’s soul that inhabited the lore boar,” Calypso explained to Emily and Eric. She turned to face Aria, ignoring Lexi and Clarice as they rolled on the ground with laughter after Aria’s flatulent explosion. “Do you know why that portal became sentient?”

“The divine instruments are tools for shaping reality,” Aria boomed out. “After using them, ripples can affect reality in the world around them.”

“Do you still have any of the childhood objects that their memories might have been sealed in at your house?” Calypso asked Eric and Emily hopefully.

“I always meant to take them to a thrift store, but never got around to it,” Eric said sheepishly. “They’re all boxed up in the attic.”

Calypso opened a portal to the living room of their home back in the city. “Eric, can you show me where they are?”

“Of course,” Eric replied quickly, leading the way through the portal. He took her up to the second floor and pulled the attic stairs down from the ceiling.

Calypso opened another portal back to the front yard and speed ran all of the boxes out onto the lawn. Aria was waiting with Emily near the first portal, but Lexi and Clarice were nowhere to be seen. Calypso traced her spiritual link to the two of them and found them behind one of the large trees. Their lips were glued together as they held each other passionately.

“Well, that didn’t take long,” Calypso muttered, her cheeks flushing as the linked emotional states of their souls broadcast the passionate sensations the two teenagers were experiencing.

The three adult angels quickly unloaded all the boxes onto the lawn and then looked to Aria questioningly.

“The elephant feels connected,” Aria boomed as she stared at the mess of toys and stuffed animals on the lawn. “Destroy it and it should restore Aria’s mental state.”

Emily vaporized the elephant with her eyes. They glanced at Aria expectantly.

“Why are all of our old toys all over the lawn?” Aria asked with a puzzled crease to her brow.

“How old are you?” Emily asked her intently.

“Is this a trick question?” Aria asked suspiciously. “I’m twenty-five, Mom. You have perfect recall as an angel, so I know you didn’t forget.”

Calypso and Aria’s parents sighed with relief, confusing Aria even more.

“What is going on?” Aria demanded in confusion. “And why in the hell are Clarice and Lexi making out like a couple of teenagers?”

“You were trapped in a memory of yourself as a nine-year-old,” Calypso explained patiently. “The memory trap was linked to one of your childhood toys. When we destroyed it, you came back to normal. Do you know what Clarice’s favorite toy or object was when she was thirteen?”

“She’s thirteen right now?” Aria asked, flushing as the emotional bond with Clarice and Lexi continued feeding Calypso and Aria increasingly intimate sensations.

“Yes, and Lexi’s fourteen,” Calypso nodded through her own blushes. “What did Clarice prize at thirteen?”

“Her phone,” Aria replied dryly. “She also liked the stationary kit with the wax stamps.”

They quickly searched through the clutter until they found a wooden box filled with envelopes, wax, and engraved metal stamps. Emily vaporized it.

“I don’t think that was it,” Aria announced, her ears burning. “Unless she decided to keep fooling around after her memory was restored.”

“Why are you two blushing so much?” Emily asked curiously.

“Our souls formed an emotional link while we were in Eden,” Calypso explained awkwardly. “We can feel each other’s emotions, as well as sensations, apparently.”

“Oh,” Emily glanced back toward the large tree where the sounds of kissing was coming from. “That’s either going to be a lot of fun or really embarrassing.”

“I thought her guitar was her favorite object at thirteen,” Eric commented with a frown.

Aria snapped her fingers. “That’s right! I wasn’t even thinking of instruments.”

“Are we really going to have to destroy her first guitar?” Emily asked dubiously. “She really loves that guitar.”

“Let’s try breaking the strings and see if that’s enough,” Calypso suggested, opening a small portal into the cabin and pulling the guitar through. She quickly removed the strings and then let Emily vaporize them.

“What the hell?” Clarice’s voice gasped in confusion. “Lexi?”

“What?” Lexi asked, her voice full of insecurity and dread.

“Were we just making out?” Clarice asked in a perplexed tone.

“Yep,” Lexi replied warmly. “You’re a really good kisser for a thirteen year old. Have you been practicing a lot?”

“Thirteen?” Clarice repeated in a mystified voice.

Just go along with it for now, Calypso warned her. She quickly explained the events of the last hour to a shocked Clarice. Finding something of Lexi’s is going to be the hardest of all, so she might be stuck in her fourteen-year-old mental state for a while.

“Let’s slow down a little bit, okay Lexi?” Clarice suggested gently. “I don’t want to ruin things by moving too fast.”

“Okay,” Lexi replied in an injured tone, her face burning with shame.

“None of that now,” Clarice told her firmly. She pulled her forward and kissed her again before releasing her with a playful smile. “I just mean slowing down a little and get to know each other more. Okay?”

“Okay,” Lexi smiled back, her rejection forgotten.

“Lexi, what’s your favorite possession?” Clarice asked, her face full of interest.

“It’s silly,” Lexi murmured with a blush.

“I’m all about silly,” Clarice assured her warmly. “So? What is it?”

“It’s a fictional book that I re-read once a month,” Lexi answered shyly. “It’s about a goddess disguised as a girl that rescues another girl from her horrible parents and takes her on adventures all over the world.”

“That sounds pretty amazing,” Clarice said sadly. “Where do you keep it? Is it on a bookshelf in your room or something?”

“God no,” Lexi shuddered. “My parents would freak out if they ever found it. I keep it hidden under a floorboard.”

Calypso opened a portal to the room in the home in Lexi’s memory and was followed by Aria as she went through. Using her spiritual vision she was able to locate the hidden cubby in the room quickly. She pulled the board up and Aria took the book out of the hidey hole.

“I’m going to scan this really quick, so she still has a copy,” Aria informed Calypso quietly.

Calypso nodded as Aria quickly flipped through each page until they were all in her endless memory banks. When she was finished, she vaporized the book.

“That’s that,” Aria said sadly. “We’ll have to find her another copy somewhere.”

“Yes, we will,” Calypso agreed firmly.

They heard footsteps move down the hallway before a balding man in his fifties entered the room with a handgun held out in front of him. When he found two angels in the room he blanched, his eyes bulging.

“You were the father of Lexi,” Aria pronounced coldly as her meridians changed to aggressive energy. She began glowing brightly as she glared at the man who sold his daughter to human traffickers.

“I did my Hail Mary’s, I’ve been forgiven!” the man bleated in terror. “Jesus has forgiven me!”

“He might have,” Aria growled in rage. “But I haven’t.”

Calypso laid a restraining hand on Aria’s arm. “I think you should bring him with us.”

Aria glanced quickly at Calypso and saw the steely glint in her eyes. She nodded and casually snatched the gun out of the man’s hands and crushed it. There was a loud pop as several bullets exploded in her hand.

“You’re coming with us, Henry,” Aria told him grimly.

He tried to back away, but she flashed forward and grabbed his arm, hauling him toward the portal. “There’s a special place in hell for parents like you, Henry.”

“Mercy! Have mercy!” he begged pathetically as she dragged him through the portal.

“Like you had mercy on Lexi?” Aria asked caustically. “Is that the kind of mercy you want?”

His legs had given out on him, leaving her to drag him along the ground, whimpering and praying.

“What have you got there?” Clarice asked eagerly as she and Lexi stood with Emily and Eric.

“We thought it was time to see what our goddess of the forsaken thought of this miserable bastard,” Aria declared grimly.

Pitiless gazes stared down at the man from six pairs of angel’s eyes. Lexi stepped forward, her face filled with loathing. “Hello, Dad. Did you get my college tuition paid for yet?”

Henry gaped at the sight of his daughter. She stood in all her angelic glory, both sets of wings arched out while golden eyes burned into his terrified eyes with disgust. She stood glaring down at him, on a knife’s edge of obliterating him as Calypso felt her mind relive the horrors of her childhood. After a minute of intense struggle, Lexi finally turned her face away in disgust. “He’s not worth the stain on my soul killing him would leave.”

“Yes, he is,” Clarice declared fiercely. She flashed a brilliant white as rage suffused her meridians. A beam of brilliant white light shot into the man, vaporizing him instantly.

Lexi staggered as she saw him destroyed, then flew into Clarice’s arms, sobbing bitterly as she wept for the parent’s she never had. Clarice held her close, whispering comforting words as she opened her meridians and flooded Lexi with love and comfort.

“Clarice doesn’t play around,” Eric murmured in a shell-shocked voice.

“Good,” Emily nodded approvingly. “If she hadn’t done it, I would have.”

“Or me,” Aria added grimly.

Calypso felt a ping reverberate through the meridians of the world as a node she recognized experienced something traumatic. She opened a portal immediately and stepped through. She had barely stepped through when Aria shot after her protectively.

“What’s up, Calypso?” Aria asked, looking around the crowded university campus warily. She wrinkled her nose as she smelled demons. Without a word, she blurred toward an enclosed dumpster wall and tore the gates off, tossing them behind her. Two demons had Jason pressed up against the wall. The first demon was nearly seven feet tall and was holding Jason by the neck. His eyes were bulging as the demon slowly squeezed the life out of him. Aria immediately fired a beam into the wrist of the demon, vaporizing his hand and part of his arm. Jason dropped to the ground gasping for breath and coughing hoarsely as the two demons whirled around to face her.

“What do we have here,” Aria smiled at the two demons brightly. “It looks like a couple of bullies.”

The demons stared at her golden eyes and nested wings in dawning horror. They were pinned inside with her with nowhere to run.

“If you try to run, I’ll vaporize you before you can say Beelzebub,” Aria told them conversationally. “It’s time to start talking. Why are you attacking Jason?”

The smaller man licked suddenly dry lips nervously as he stared at her fearfully. She could hear a crowd of students gathering behind her with their phones raised up high. Luckily, Calypso was the focus of their attention. She was a few dozen feet away, walking slowly toward Aria.

Aria made a connection to their thought nodes. No need to make them talk when she could make them think.

She’s going to kill us no matter what we do. There’s no point in talking if we’re going to die either way.

“You have two options,” Aria informed them calmly. “You can answer my questions and live, as well as have the option to become angels again. Or…you can die right now.”

What’s she talking about, becoming angels again? That’s impossible.

“You two stink, but I’ve smelled worse, so I don’t think you are unredeemable,” Aria told them gently. “Do you want to become angels again?”

The taller demon watched her warily, not speaking. Fortunately, he didn’t have to.

This must be some kind of trick. What kind of sick angel would use the hope of being redeemed as leverage to make us talk? Does she think we were born yesterday?

“I want to be an angel again,” the shorter demon mumbled weakly.

“That’s impossible, you idiot,” the taller demon growled disdainfully. “She’s taunting us.”

“Calypso, I believe both of them would like to be redeemed,” Aria told Calypso, never taking her eyes from the demons. “You’ll need to regrow the arm on the tall one though. I vaporized it to stop him from choking Jason.”

Calypso quickly connected to the vortex near the demon’s navels, then flashed into brilliant light as she burned out a part of their soul connection. The two former demons were gaping at her as their meridians were flushed of darkness and flooded with light. Silver tears ran down their cheeks as the emotional overload hit them hard. Aria moved past them and pulled Jason to his feet. He was still struggling with his windpipe. It had been partially crushed by the demon's powerful grip.

“Jason needs healing,” Aria informed Calypso, picking the struggling man up and bringing him out to Calypso.

Calypso sang three quick words of power. Jason took a relieved breath of air through his healed windpipe. The bruises that were forming were gone now.

“Thank you, Aria and Calypso,” Jason panted gratefully. “I thought I was a goner. I guess I really can just pray to you if I’m in trouble.”

“It’s not prayer, you goose,” Aria snorted wryly. “It wasn’t you calling out for her either. She can sense when you are in trouble.”

“Did she really just change those demons into angels?” Jason asked in awe.

“She did,” Aria nodded with a pleased smile. “I’m glad they were redeemable. We killed a demon lord earlier today who was not.”

“Wait, I thought demon lords were supposed to be super powerful,” Jason said in surprise.

“We’ve learned a lot since the last time we talked,” Aria told him with a rueful shake of her head. “Calypso is a Seraph. She’s the highest order of angel. There are only eight other Seraphim in the entirety of existence. Since she raised us to angels directly, we are Cherubim, which is the second most powerful class of angels. We’re also the only class of angel that can kill immortal beings. Demon lords are significantly weaker than us. The one we killed was one of the two strongest demon lords here on Earth, and it was like stepping on a bug. But the most important thing that’s happened since we last talked, is that Calypso has figured out how to redeem demons back to angels. All the angels that were forcefully changed into demons can be redeemed. We’ve already redeemed close to a hundred demons.”

Calypso had been talking with the demons while Aria spoke to Jason. She had healed the missing arm that Aria had vaporized. They were slowly recovering from the emotional storm that followed a demon redemption.

“Would you two mind telling us why you were attacking Jason now?” Aria asked the two angels with a raised eyebrow.

“We were ordered to rough him up to within an inch of his life,” Drejan replied quietly, his eyes still filled with joy. “They didn’t tell us why, but we believe they were trying to send a message to you that your friends would be harmed if you didn’t stay away from the agency.”

Calypso was already making a portal that opened into the hospital where she had healed Aria and Clarice before he finished speaking. Julia leapt out of her chair in surprise when she saw Calypso walk through the portal.

Aria quickly followed her, the smell of demon stench strong in the hospital. She blurred up to the third floor and grabbed a demon that was aiming a crossbow over the third-floor balcony toward Julia on the main floor. He gasped as she appeared, his finger squeezing the trigger. Time slowed down around Aria as she shot down the drop to the main floor and grabbed the crossbow bolt out of the air right before it hit Julia. Julia let out a small scream when Aria suddenly appeared in front of her, hovering in the air and holding on to the bolt inches from her hose.

Aria opened a portal beneath the fleeing demon’s feet that dropped him onto the floor in front of her. He sprang back to his feet to run away again but was rooted to the spot as Aria held him in place by the back of his neck.

“What’s going on, Aria?” Julia asked, her eyes wide with shock.

“Some demons were ordered to harm the people that we love,” Calypso informed her darkly. “We are making sure that doesn’t happen.”

There were over a dozen people filming them with their phones already. Aria sighed as she imagined what the demon run media would say about her this time.

“Would you like to be redeemed as an angel?” Aria asked the demon in her grasp. He had continued struggling to escape to no avail. “You’re pretty stinky though, so I imagine you’ve sunk yourself pretty deeply in evil.”

A feral scream was his only reply. Aria pulled the human mask from his head, revealing a red scaled demon with small nubs on his head. “I wonder if they look more demonic based on their level of evil.”

Julia recoiled in horror as she witnessed the demon behind the mask. There were gasps and a few screams as the audience saw the face of a demon.

“I didn’t want to vaporize him while he looked human with everyone watching,” Aria explained to Calypso. “Are we going to stick to only redeeming demons who are willing?”

Calypso nodded, her eyes sad.

Aria vaporized the demon quickly, eliciting startled exclamations from the spectators. “Who else do we need to check on?”

“Julia, where are James, Malek, and Latecia?” Calypso asked quickly. “Just think of the places in your head.”

Julia gave her a strange look but complied. Calypso opened three more gateways. Aria sniffed each one for a whiff of demon stench but smelled nothing. Malek gave her a startled look from his office at home as he saw her stick her head through the portal.

“No time to talk,” Aria told him quickly. “Just making sure there aren’t any demons around. We’ll chat soon.”

She repeated the quick explanation with James and Latecia. Calypso closed the gateways, and they turned to face Julia. Jason had followed them through the gateway that was still open to the campus of MIT. Several students were taking video of the gateway, some of them working up the nerve to stick their hands through experimentally.

Another gateway opened and Lexi and Clarice walked through to join them, their eyes scanning the area for danger.

“Do we know where the demon responsible for ordering this is yet?” Clarice asked briskly.

“No,” Aria shook her head. “The two redeemable demons at MIT were just grunts with no real knowledge of their command structure.”

“I know someone who can probably point us in the right direction,” Clarice smiled slightly. “I think it’s time to visit Krajen again. I’ll bet he’ll have some intel on where to find those responsible.”

“Julia, how many sick children are there here right now?” Calypso asked, her eyes soft.

“Three right now,” Julia replied, her eyes lighting up with hope. “Could you visit them while you are here?”

“Of course,” Calypso replied with an affectionate smile. She looked around the hospital with her spiritual eyes for the tainted auras of sick children, then opened a gateway to the room with the first child. “Thanks, Julia. If you ever end up in trouble, we’ll be here before you know it.”

“So I noticed,” Julia responded with a grateful smile.

Aria followed Calypso through the portal into a room with an eight-year-old girl who was sitting in a bed playing on a phone. She was hairless, with dark circles under her eyes and gaunt cheeks. Her eyes widened as she saw a glowing Calypso come through the gateway.

“Hello, Melany,” Calypso smiled warmly at the girl. “Let’s get you healed.”

Melany’s eyes lit up with excitement and awe as she felt the overpowering presence of Calypso’s aura wash over her. Calypso walked up to her and sang a few words in the language she now recognized as divine instructions for healing. She no longer required entire songs to heal. The girl glowed brightly for a moment as her eyes grew bright with vitality. Unlike her previous healings, which resulted in removing the illness, she now had a much greater command of her powers. The girl’s hair quickly grew out on her head and her gaunt cheeks filled out with a healthy glow.

The door opened behind them and the girl’s mother came into the room and gasped as she saw the angels in front of her daughter. Calypso held her hand out to the girl and she got out of the bed with an exuberant smile on her face.

“Melany?” her mother whispered in wonder, tears filling her eyes.

“Mom!” Melany cried out excitedly. “Calypso healed me!”

Calypso smiled as Melany’s mother rushed forward and pulled her daughter into a tight embrace, sobbing in relief. Calypso embraced the two of them, filling their souls with love.

“It was nice to meet you, Melany,” Calypso told the excited girl with a tender smile as she stepped back and opened a portal into the room of the next sick child.

“Thank you!” Melany’s mother cried out gratefully, her eyes filled with gratitude and wonder.

It felt wonderful to be healing children again. Calypso felt a sense of nostalgic contentment as she finished healing the last child, an eleven-year-old boy who was fighting a flesh-eating bacterium that had already resulted in his legs being amputated. She had left him with new legs and a heartwarming embrace.

She sighed as she thought about how many other children needed to be healed throughout the world. She portaled back to where Julia sat at her desk, surrounded by people peppering her with questions about her relationship with Calypso and the other angels. When they saw Calypso return, they fell silent and retreated from Julia’s desk several steps.

“Julia, how soon until the live project will be ready to go?” Calypso asked, cognizant of the watching eyes and phones.

“It will be ready within a few hours of when you give the word,” Julia responded, her eyes alight with anticipation. “We finished all of the preparations last night and can have everyone ready within a few hours.”

“Let’s get started then,” Calypso decided, feeling the millstone of time that dominated the lives of mortals. “Will 8:00pm Eastern time work?”

“That should give us plenty of time,” Julia assured her with an exuberant grin. “We’ll have everything ready.”

“Wonderful,” Calypso beamed at her. “I’ll see you later tonight then.”

“Jason, can you come with us please?” Calypso asked the young man as he stood off to the side awkwardly, clearly unsure of whether he should have followed them through the portal.

He nodded quickly and followed them through a portal back to the cabin. As they exited, Emily and Eric joined them.

“Let’s get you some food, young man,” Emily told Jason as she blurred into the cabin.

“It’s so weird having someone who looks so young call me young man,” Jason murmured in bemusement.

Eric laughed, nodding his head in agreement. “I’m still having a hard time recognizing her now. It’s been thirty years since she looked this young.”

“We’re going to broadcast to all of the hospitals tonight,” Calypso informed him, her eyes sparkling. “As soon as we’re finished, we’ll be ready for the live broadcast to destroy the nanobots whenever you are.”

“It’s pretty much ready,” Jason grinned in anticipation. “We’ve got a team of over four thousand people working with us on this operation. They were all people you healed. Some of them are working in the intelligence agencies and have given us access to the backdoor trojans they use. I would suggest we do it right after you finish with the hospitals so that they don’t have time to react.”

“Well done, Jason,” Calypso smiled gratefully at him.

“Did you just say backdoor trojans?” Clarice asked Jason with an amused upraised eyebrow. “Is this more…jargon?”

Jason blinked at her, then his face burned with embarrassment. “Um, yeah, it’s another technical term.”

“Just ignore the adolescent,” Aria told Jason dryly.

“Come in and sit down, Jason,” Emily called from the cabin. “You’ll work better on a full stomach.”

Jason grinned eagerly. “I won’t say no to that. She really is an amazing chef.”

“Kind of ironic that she can’t eat anymore,” Eric commented, shaking his head ruefully.

“Fortunately, the tradeoff is well worth it,” Emily responded fervently.

Now that she could remember being human, Calypso firmly agreed. The positive energy filling her system with bliss all the time was like a drug that never wore off. She felt a pang of sorrow for the angels who had been forcibly transformed into demons, believing there was no turning back. It truly was a kind of hell to live with the memory of bliss while having a toxic hunger for power replace that feeling. Driven by the compulsion of their demon lord, they had been forced to commit acts of cruelty and horror.

They went up to the veranda on the second floor and found areas to stand and enjoy the view where they wouldn’t look like they were watching Jason. She remembered his self-conscious attitude when eating in front of beautiful angels.

“I’ve got the invite ready to send out to everyone later this afternoon,” Aria informed her as she joined them near the edge of the veranda. “We’ll be sending out Zoom and Teams invites. Our friends in the hospitals will have the kids either in one of the conference rooms where they can watch the video or tuned in on devices in their rooms. They purchased a lot of used tablets to distribute to the people who are too sick to leave their rooms.”

“Thank you for setting all of that up, Aria,” Calypso smiled gratefully at Aria.

“There’s something I wanted to show you before we get started this afternoon,” Clarice informed her with a mysterious smile.

Calypso blinked, glancing at Aria’s curious expression and finding no help. “Is it something here at the cabin?”

“No, it’s a secret,” Clarice grinned at her mischievously.

“Hopefully a secret far away from here,” Emily muttered under her breath.

“It’s not even on Earth,” Clarice hinted with a teasing sparkle in her golden eyes.

“Good,” Emily grumbled good naturedly. “We don’t need any more power outages.”

Calypso felt her cheeks heat up as her gaze flickered over to where Clarice was relaxing, sitting on her wings on a tall chair and leaning back with her crossed legs stretched out onto the railing in front of her. Clarice saw her blushing face and a slow, seductive smile spread across her face. Calypso’s breath quickened, which she knew was instinctive since she didn’t need oxygen. Butterflies erupted in her stomach as she stared back at the promise in Clarice’s eyes.

“Power outages?” Jason asked curiously.

“Maybe we should go now,” Calypso suggested quickly, her meridians surging with sudden desire.

Clarice stretched languidly, her eyes never leaving Calypso’s. She stood up and opened a portal to the planet beneath the sun. There was small cabin on the endless grassy plains. Calypso frowned at it before turning back to Clarice.

“Did you teleport that there?” she asked, her voice a little breathless.

“Yep,” Clarice nodded with a triumphant smile. “It took a little while to figure out, but I eventually got it. Shall we?”

Calypso went through the portal, her hands shaking with sudden nerves as butterflies tried to lift her off the ground. The portal closed behind them and Clarice took her shaky hands in her own as they walked the twenty feet to the cabin.

“You doing okay?” Clarice asked, her eyes concerned.

Calypso felt slightly breathless as she stared into Clarice’s beautiful face. Golden eyes filled with love and concern stared back at her tenderly. In answer, Calypso pulled her into an embrace, her lips seeking out Clarice’s as the desire flooding her system took control. Clarice smiled and met her lips with a passion as strong as her own.

Chapter 18

Aria sat down across from Jason as he finished eating, ignoring the way her wings squished against the chair. Not feeling pain and being invulnerable made things like discomfort a thing of the past.

“Things might be a little weird for you when you get back to campus,” Aria informed him cautiously.

“Oh?” Jason asked with a frown. “Why do you say that?”

“Well, there were a lot of students videoing our encounter with the demons that Calypso redeemed,” Aria began slowly. “It was pretty apparent that we were in close contact with you. I would imagine your face is all over the internet right now as people try to puzzle out what your connection to the angels is.”

Jason facepalmed, groaning as realization hit. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that. Yeah, I’m going to get mobbed by all my dorm mates with questions about you.”

“It will probably be a lot more than dorm mates,” Aria warned with a small smile. “We’ve experienced this before, and things have only become more intense since then. You’re probably going to have media corporations, influencers, religious figures, and everything in between seeking you out to learn more about the angels.”

“Oh my god, you’re right,” Jason groaned again. “I wonder if I should take a short break from school.”

“Do you mind if I join you?” Arturiel asked hesitantly, standing at the entrance to the veranda.

“Not at all,” Aria smiled welcomingly at the newest archangel. “Did you try flying yet?”

“Yes!” Arturiel beamed, her eyes sparkling with excitement. “I can’t believe how fun that is. I’ve done a lot of things in the last few million years, but this still sits in my top ten favorite things to do.”

“I know, right?” Aria grinned back at her. “Arturiel, this is Jason. Jason, this is Arturiel. She’ll go down in history as the first demon to have been redeemed, as well as the first angel to have changed class to an archangel.”

“Hi, nice to meet you,” Jason nodded at the beautiful angel, his face coloring slightly.

Poor Jason, Aria thought with an amused smile. He’s surrounded by beautiful angelic women on every side.

“Hello, Jason, I’ve heard so much about you,” Arturiel greeted him with a warm smile.

“About me?” Jason asked in surprise, suddenly self-conscious.

“Of course,” Arturiel nodded, gesturing at Aria. “They’ve told me all about the work you’ve been doing to help them purge the nanobots from the agency contractors. It’s going to be a monumental undertaking. Probably the biggest hack in history, and you are going to be the star in the history books.”

Jason blinked as he finally saw the magnitude of what his project would achieve and his role as the chief organizer of the entire thing. “Wow, I guess I never saw it from that perspective.”

“That’s because you are a good person, Jason,” Aria told him fondly. “You’ve been focused on the outcome of this project rather than personal glory.”

“If I was mortal and a few million years younger…” Arturiel sighed, an impish grin on her face.

“Uh…um, didn’t Aria say that mortals and angels could, you know…” he made some vague gestures as his cheeks reddened.

“Yeah, but I’ve heard you’re planning on having a family,” Arturiel told him with a regretful sigh. “If you slept with an angel, you would never be satisfied with a mortal woman.”

“How thoughtful of you to point that out,” Emily snorted a laugh. “He’s going to be fighting women off after those videos hit the internet, especially when people learn that mortals can be raised to angels. I’ve seen people suggesting the possibility already, after the autists of the internet revealed that Aria and Clarice lived perfectly mortal lives before meeting Calypso. They’ll see any friend of angels as a gateway to immortality.”

Jason had a sick look on his face as he realized just how crazy life was about to become for him.

“I’m going to grab a laptop and check it out,” Aria announced, her curiosity getting the better of her.

Jason blinked as he watched Aria reach through a small portal in the air and pull a laptop out of the library. “How far can you make a portal to?”

“There isn’t a limit,” Aria replied absently as she opened the laptop and logged in. “We’re Cherubim, so we can travel to the highest light realm. I could open a portal to Proxima Centauri b if you want to take a peek at an alien world.”

“Is there life on Proxima Centauri b?” Jason asked in amazement. “Are there really aliens?”

“Of course,” Arturiel replied with a shrug. “There is life everywhere in the cosmos.”

“But they aren’t as far as you’ve been taught,” Aria told Jason with a shake of her head. “We flew over to Alpha Centauri the other day and it was way closer than four lightyears.”

“That’s the hardest lie for the demons to keep up,” Arturiel revealed with a shake of her head. “If people actually thought about how far light years really are they would realize that stars should be winking out of sight all the time. At those distances, a microscopic dust particle would be large enough to blot out the closest star. There are so many rogue planets, space dust, asteroids, and comets that you wouldn’t even see stars at all at those distances. One of the demons in charge of psyops came up with the flat earth theory to discredit anyone asking questions about the distance of stars. It keeps search engines from showing anything relevant and just shows flat earth propaganda.”

“Seriously?” Jason asked, dumbfounded. “So, all of those stars we see at night are actually close enough to travel to?”

“Well, it would still take a long time if you were flying rocket propulsion vehicles,” Arturiel replied critically. “But if you used EM propulsion vessels, then yes, they are easily within range.”

“My mind is blown,” Jason breathed in amazement. “Why aren’t we seeing aliens all of the time then?”

“You do,” Arturiel answered pointedly. “They just get explained away as swamp gas. In this quadrant the only thing travelling between worlds will be demons. Earth isn’t the only world they’ve overrun. The fact that angels can be turned into demons and that, until now, the reverse wasn’t true, made it a battle of attrition where angels would inevitably loose.”

Aria froze as she was suddenly vividly reminded that she shared emotional bonds with three other angels. Her face burning, she staggered to her feet and began weaving toward her room. “You two carry on, I’m going to…to…to go lie down for a bit.”

Arturiel and Jason watched her in concern that turned to confusion when Emily started laughing wickedly.

She heard Lexi staggering toward her room as well. This was going to definitely get awkward.

XXXXX

“What was all that about?” Jason asked Emily curiously.

“The four of them went to the Garden of Eden on the sun earlier,” Emily explained, her lips twitching with mirth. “They ended up with their spirits becoming bonded to each other in such a way that they feel each other’s emotions, and to some extent, sensations.”

“The Garden of Eden is on the sun?” Jason asked incredulously. “How is it not burned to a crisp?”

Arturiel started laughing again, watching Jason with amusement. “The sun isn’t hot, Jason. The light is a result of electrical currents travelling through channels of plasma that connect star systems to each other and interact with the materials on the shell of the sun. There is a habitable world below the shell of the sun. The only hot part about the sun is the corona above it.”

Jason looked like a fish out of water as his mouth moved without sound and his eyes bugged out.

“You’ll have to unlearn a lot of what you’ve learned in life for the cosmos to make sense in a world of angels and demons,” Emily commented wryly.

“So, what’s going on that is affecting Aria so much that she had to leave?” Arturiel asked Emily curiously. “Are one of the other’s in trouble?”

“Clarice and Calypso are having an…intimate moment,” Emily explained with an amused smile.

Arturiel blinked, then shook her head wonderingly. “I’m still having trouble seeing a Seraph so personable. My entire understanding of them is that they are cosmic figures far removed from things like personal relationships.”

“That’s probably part of the problem with the cosmos right now,” Emily pointed out critically. “Perhaps Seraphim need to experience some mortality to gain perspective and learn compassion and empathy.”

“Are there really only four other Seraphim?” Jason asked, feeling a sense of awe that he was interacting with a being that would one day sit at the top of the ruling class in the cosmos.

“There were nine, originally, but there are currently only four that remain in the light realms,” Arturiel responded, her face full amazement. “I still can’t believe I have actually been talking to a Seraph. They are never seen outside of the higher realms of light.”

“Do regular angels and archangels live in the light realms?” Jason asked curiously.

“We lived in the lower light realms once, before the realm of mortality was created,” Arturiel replied with a wistful smile. “It was such a wonderful place. Thoughts influenced the reality around us, allowing us to bring our ideas to life. The rules are so much more restrictive in the mortal realm. I wonder if we’ll ever be allowed to return. The majority of angels still live there, but many of us were selected to oversee the mortal realm.”

“I get the feeling that things are going to change a lot, now that Calypso is ascending,” Eric commented contemplatively. “Whatever force has arranged for my daughters to become intertwined with Calypso seems to have a motive that involves a changing of the guard from what I can see. I wonder if there are any other Seraphim like Calypso that will arise out there in the cosmos.”

“I think there just might be,” Emily commented with a mysterious smile.

“What are you looking so mysterious about?” Eric asked with a raised eyebrow.

“If I told you, I wouldn’t be very mysterious anymore, would I?” Emily responded archly.

Arturiel stared at Eric thoughtfully. “It definitely feels like we are on the brink of a great change. The appearance of a divine instrument is both terrifying and extraordinary.”

“What’s the significance of divine instruments?” Jason asked curiously. He felt both overwhelmed and excited at the sheer amount of knowledge he was gaining on how the cosmos actually worked and the true history of life. Questions were competing for priority in his head as he stared at a being who had been around for more centuries than he could imagine, with answers to some of life’s biggest questions.

“The divine instruments are tools for altering reality,” Arturiel explained, her face filled with reverence. “I’m still agog that I’ve actually seen a divine instrument. Only the Seraphim can use them or even hear them played. The power they unleash by fully ascended Seraphim is too powerful for lesser beings to be nearby when they are played. That’s probably the main reason there haven’t been hosts of invading angels from the other Seraphim. All Calypso would need to do is play that harp and it would wipe out all but the Seraphim and possibly the Cherubim.”

“Does it require all four instruments to rewrite reality?” Eric asked intently. “Or could they do it with just the two?”

“Just the two?” Arturiel asked, her face startled. “They have two?”

“Oh, you haven’t heard about Aria yet, have you?” Emily smiled wryly. “The Lore Boar was the other half of her spirit. I get the feeling that she was at least a Cherubim before she became a mortal, and that their spirits can’t be contained in one body. Anyway, when Calypso played a song for the Lore Boar with that celestial harp it transformed the Lore Boar into a divine instrument and merged with Aria. She now possesses a tin whistle that is one of the divine instruments.”

Arturiel stared at her in shock, blinking as her eyes stared off into space. “There are so many things in that explanation that boggle my mind. First of all, the Lore Boar was real? I thought it was a myth.”

“That’s why they went to Eden,” Emily explained, smiling at something she found amusing. “The Lore Boar was inside the Tree of Life. You can thank Grodek for putting us on that path. He kept insisting that we needed to speak with the Lore Boar. He must have known that Aria’s other half was there.”

“And Aria is the one in possession of the other divine instrument?” Arturiel exclaimed, her eyes troubled.

“She is,” Emily nodded firmly. “Why? Is that unusual?”

“I thought that only Seraphim could play divine instruments, or be near them when played,” Arturiel muttered distractedly. “I’m almost positive that’s the case.”

“Maybe they are only deadly when a Seraph is fully ascended,” Eric suggested, raising his eyebrows as he looked at his wife. “We were all present when Calypso played the harp the first time. We ascended more than twenty levels as a result.”

“What are these ascension levels you are referring to?” Jason asked curiously.

“When an angel is transformed from a mortal form, they aren’t at the peak of their power immediately,” Arturiel explained, glancing at Emily and Eric appraisingly. “There are triggers that cause bursts of development, increasing their powers and abilities. It usually takes much longer for an angel to ascend, but I only have angels and archangels as a metric for how quickly they evolve their abilities and power. Perhaps Cherubim and Seraphim ascend much faster.”

“Or perhaps they are developing at the same speed, but their power is just so much greater that it appears to be quicker,” Jason suggested insightfully. “Maybe they are still fairly week compared to what they will eventually become.”

“That’s a good point,” Arturiel admitted with a nod. “It’s difficult for me to comprehend just how powerful a Cherub or Seraph is. There are stories of Cherubim destroying entire star systems, so who knows just how powerful they will become?”

“That’s a terrifying thought,” Eric declared with a shiver. “I’m not sure I want to have that kind of power.”

“It’s a bit late to make that decision,” Emily told him archly. “Besides, that’s exactly why you should have that power, instead of somebody who would want to destroy an entire star system.”

Jason nodded his agreement. “Power in the hands of those who seek it is the last place power belongs.”

All of the angels suddenly stared upward, their eyes wide with shock. A moment later the darkening skies lit up with auroras. The three angels all turned in unison to stare back inside the cabin where Aria had gone.

“Well, I suppose there are some perks to a unified consciousness,” Emily noted dryly.

Arturiel was blushing slightly as she met Jason’s confused gaze.

“What’s going on?” Jason asked in mild alarm. The auroras were still washing the skies with vivid ribbons of green and pink color.

“I expect the sun just had the equivalent of an X50 class solar flare,” Arturiel murmured with a small smile. “Judging by the sounds from the cabin, anyway.”

Jason frowned, forgetting that angels had super hearing. “Is it something we should be worried about?”

“No, but I suspect Calypso will have some new powers when she gets back,” Emily smirked. “Clarice as well. Maybe even Aria and Lexi”

“Oh,” Jason blushed as he finally grasped the context clues.

“That’s my girl,” Eric declared proudly, his eyes sparkling.

“You and I need to figure this portal thing out and make a trip to the sun too,” Emily told Eric with a very direct gaze as she slipped her arms around his neck.

“We sure do,” Eric replied with a smoldering gaze.

Jason looked at Arturiel awkwardly, trying to think of something to change the subject. She was watching him with a knowing gaze, her eyes filled with amusement.

“So…do we need to worry about any of these other Cherubim showing up?” Jason asked, desperately trying to fill the silence.

“I haven’t the faintest idea,” Arturiel admitted with a sigh. “The movements of the mighty were too far removed from my station as a lowly angel to have any idea what they might do.”

Devon walked through a semi-permanent portal that connected Tamra’s property to his and began making his way up to the cabin. Jason had never met the man, but knew he was also postponing his ascension to angelhood until he experienced parenthood. Devon was whistling as he walked, a cheerful expression on his face.

He squinted at Devon as he moved out of sight beneath them and entered the cabin. “Where does that portal open up?”

“That goes to Tamra’s house,” Arturiel answered with an indulgent smile. “The two of them hit it off pretty well.”

“Should I know who this Tamra person is?” Jason asked curiously.

“Do you see this shirt that is custom fitted to accommodate wings?” Arturiel asked, gesturing at her form fitting shirt. “Tamra is our tailor. She makes costumes for various theaters and movie production sets.”

“Before Aria found her, we had to either use a lot of safety pins to hold our shirts together, or as Clarice put it, join the bra club,” Emily told him with an amused grin. “They’ve had their clothing destroyed on multiple occasions, so if you ever see them running around in bras, you’ll know they’ve burned through all of the outfits Tamra has made for them.”

Jason tried really hard not to imagine the gorgeous angels running around naked or in bras, but it was a futile effort. His cheeks colored and he started trying to remember code snippets, scripts, or anything else that would get the images out of his head. The throaty chuckle from Emily as she observed him sent heat up his neck and ears as he blushed furiously.

“What did I miss,” Devon asked pleasantly, his eyes alighting on Jason. “I see we have a guest. I’m Devon, Emily’s brother.”

Jason stood up and walked over to shake his hand, glad for the distraction from his thoughts. “I’m Jason. I’ve been working on the hacking project to kill off the nanobots when Calypso sings for the world.”

“It’s nice to finally put a face to the name,” Devon said, shaking his hand with a firm grip. “Thank you for putting this project together. It’s personal for me.”

“That’s right, you used to work for this shadow agency, didn’t you?” Jason remembered, recalling his first conversation with Calypso almost a week ago.

“Indeed, I did,” Devon grimaced, clearly unhappy with the reminder. “It will be great to give other people the chance I had to put it behind them.”

“How far is-“ he broke off as a tall angel suddenly appeared behind Emily, radiating power. He had the same double layer of wings that Aria and the others had. His golden eyes glowed brighter for a moment before firing a brilliant white beam at Emily.

Jason’s eyes couldn’t keep up with what happened next. Aria had suddenly appeared between her mother and the other angel, her own eyes firing off a beam of her own that intercepted the first beam. The angel stumbled backward in surprise at Aria’s interference. Before he could react further, Aria fired off an intense beam of light into the angel’s neck, vaporizing him instantly.

“Who the hell was that?” Eric asked in shock as he spun around.

“Someone who thought they could do a sneak attack and whittle our numbers down,” Aria growled, her eyes filled with righteous fury.

“That was a Cherub!” Arturiel exclaimed in shock. “You just killed a Cherub like it was nothing!”

“It is nothing,” Aria declared grimly, her eyes glowing as she scanned the surrounding area. “Now. Just like anyone else will be if they try to harm my family.”

A second later, Clarice and Calypso appeared on the veranda, Clarice glowing like the sun as she also searched the area. She looked like she had been in the middle of getting dressed when she teleported, her shirt only partially buttoned up and leaving very little to the imagination. Jason quickly looked away.

“It must have been a second or third order Cherubim,” Aria commented as she failed to see any further threats. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to kill it, right?”

She addressed the question to Arturiel, but Calypso answered.

“It was a first order Cherubim,” Calypso declared firmly. “I can sense the residue of its essence.”

“So, Cherubim’s of the same order can kill each other?” Aria asked with a frown.

“I didn’t think they could,” Arturiel replied uncertainly. “They would have killed each other long ago if they could have. The first order Cherubim are the oldest angels besides the Seraphim because nothing can kill them.”

“Until now, anyway,” Clarice pointed out with a satisfied grin. She rushed over and hugged Aria tightly. “Thanks for reacting so fast.”

“Of course,” Aria replied softly. “Nobody’s getting past me. Also, finish buttoning up your shirt before Jason dies of asphyxiation.”

Clarice laughed, breaking the tension as she quickly finished buttoning up her shirt.

Jason let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. He decided Arturiel probably wasn’t being facetious when she said she didn’t want to make mortal women a letdown for him. Angels all seemed to be formed to perfection.

“I guess we know the other angels are aware of us now,” Aria commented musingly. “That was a pretty cheap shot, trying to teleport in and assassinate one of us on the sly. These angels really aren’t much better than demons, are they?”

“There’s a reason the mortal realm was created,” Arturiel pointed out sadly. “It was supposed to be a kind of school where they could learn what compassion and empathy were as they experienced pain and loss. Unfortunately, only a few angels from the higher triads were sent here.”

“Oh my god,” Jason breathed as he had a sudden realization. “Was I one of the angels that was an asshole? Is my spirit bound to reincarnate here constantly until I learn my lesson?”

“I’m afraid so,” Arturiel nodded with a look of compassion. “I should point out though, that the first triad was very indiscriminate in who they consigned to mortality.”

“You could say that again,” Grodek snorted with a disgusted look on his face as he appeared in their midst. “Mortality was just a weaponized prison to send people that were inconvenient. I remember you, Jason, and you were a decent angel. Too decent, so they sent you here so that you would stop getting in the way.”

Jason stared at the blue imp in fascination, feeling a fleeting sense of familiarity. Grodek stared back at him appraisingly for a few seconds. “They didn’t count on a Seraph awakening and gathering a host of angels that could resist their power though. Having demons decimate the angels’ numbers was all part of their master plan to prevent humans from ascending again. There are some pretty shrill screams in the upper triads right now, I can tell you that.”

“Why was I able to kill that Cherub?” Aria asked Grodek with a puzzled look. “Calypso said he was the same order of Cherub as me.”

“Maybe there is more to you than you thought,” Grodek replied cryptically, then let out a snort of amusement. “The remaining Cherubim are going to be a lot more cautious when they find out Kadmiel is no longer with them. They thought they were untouchable until now. It’s going to be glorious to see the fear on their faces when I tell them Kadmiel is no more.”

“That was Kadmiel?” Arturiel gasped, staring at Grodek in shock.

“Was, being the operative word,” Grodek laughed evilly.

Arturiel seemed to sway in shock as she stared at Aria and Grodek in a state of disbelief. “He was one of the first to turn on his Seraph, Lucifer, before he was cast out. He was one of the most powerful Cherubim of the first triad.”

“Oh, I remember well when he turned on Lucifer after gathering so much support for him,” Grodek snarled in rage. “The little weasel thought he could stop the revolt if he pulled the rug out from under him. The little snake was always slithering through the ranks, poisoning the minds of anyone who didn’t fall in line. He’s responsible for more angels being sent to mortality and consigned to demonic assimilation than any other person.”

“There will be many more who join him before we are finished,” Calypso remarked sadly. “I’m not sure there is any way for them to be redeemed, even through mortality.”

“Good riddance,” Grodek grinned wickedly. “Every horror you have seen down here on this world can be laid at their feet. There are billions of other worlds just as disparate. A quick end is a mercy they don’t deserve.”

Jason scratched his head, trying to make sense of all the information dropped in front of him. He had only discovered angels and demons existed less than a week ago. Now it seemed that all the horrors of the world could be laid at the feet of a despotic group of angels who had taken over the cosmos and created mortality prisons to hold anyone who objected to their rule. Whoever he had been before his incarceration was clearly an angel of some influence. The idea that he had been imprisoned in an incarnation loop filled him with an unaccustomed feeling of righteous fury.

“It’s time for the show,” Aria declared with an excited grin at Calypso. “Are you ready?”

“Absolutely ready,” Calypso smiled eagerly as she made her way to the theater where her equipment was set up for the video conference. “Let’s go heal the world.”

Chapter 19

Aria opened the video conference link Julia had sent them earlier that day. After loading the video window, she centered the camera on Calypso. The Seraph stood on the small stage with her harp, looking into the camera with her swirling hypnotic violet eyes. Her wings were shimmering beautifully under the track light, framing her white clothed form and giving the scene a magical ambience. With her brilliant blonde hair tumbling down her shoulders she was the perfect embodiment of an angelic being. Aria tranced out for a moment as she just stared at the beautiful Seraph, forgetting what she was doing. When Calypso winked at her, she finally broke free of the Seraph’s enchanting spell and joined the video call.

Her eyes widened as she saw just how many people were watching the broadcast. There were people from hospitals all over the world, not just her own country. Julia had clearly made the most of her chance to heal people throughout the world.

“Hello everybody,” Calypso smiled radiantly into the camera. “I wish I could be with you all in person. Since I can’t, we’ll get you healed and maybe we’ll get a chance to meet in person in the future.”

Without any further discussion, she began playing Aria’s harp. Aria quickly fell under her spell as the beautiful music filled her soul with energy. Calypso began singing a moment later and it was clear that she had taken another step on her path to ascension while she was with Clarice on the sun. Her voice was like rippling waves of magic that washed through the soul like a tsunami. Aria could here words of power intertwined throughout her song. She wasn’t just healing one person, she was broadcasting tens of millions of runes through the divine language. Aria could tell without being able to see the patients that a sea of vitality was washing the taint from millions of bodies. Her large, expressive eyes were filled with passion as she serenaded the world with magic and love.

When she finished singing, she closed her eyes as a golden tear ran down her cheek as she smiled angelically. “I’ve wanted to reach more of you for so long. I’m so glad this opportunity finally came. Goodbye for now, dear ones.”

As Aria ended the stream, emails started flooding the inbox of the email she had used to host the event. People sending selfies of their healthy loved ones and short messages thanking her profusely for healing them.

“It looks like it worked,” Aria told her softly, her eyes full of excitement. “You did it, Calypso. You healed the world.”

More golden tears streamed down her face as she smiled brilliantly back at Aria. The rest of the group came into the theater when they heard her finish and began offering their congratulations. Clarice pulled her into a tight hug, silver tears running down her cheeks as she was overcome by emotion as well.

“Calypso, you really are the most amazing person ever,” Clarice whispered as she held her tightly. “Do you know how many parents you saved from losing their child tonight? I’m so glad we met you. Thank you so so much, for everything.”

Calypso closed her eyes as she embraced Clarice, her emotions filling the cabin around them with love, gratitude, and joy.

Aria joined Clarice, feeling a sense of ethereal wonder as the plan they had enacted in what seemed a lifetime ago was successfully completed. Lexi joined them and they stood in each other’s arms for several minutes, basking in their shared accomplishment.

“Okay, we better get going on the second phase of the plan before they shut the internet down,” Clarice finally said with a reluctant sigh.

“Where are we going to do it at?” Calypso asked, glancing at the laptop with the webcam Aria had used for the hospital broadcast. “Here?”

Clarice chuckled mischievously as she stepped back from Calypso and looked back at her father. “Dad, is everything ready?”

“Clarice, what have you done?” Aria asked in sudden concern as she felt the bubbling excitement mixed with anxiety in her sister’s emotions.

“Did you ever wonder what Dad has been up to for the last couple of days?” Clarice asked with a wolfish grin.

“I’ve been too busy to wonder what he’s been up to,” Aria declared pointedly. “And so have you, as I recall.”

“We’re going to do our live broadcast on stage,” Clarice told them as she opened a portal up to the side of a stage. There were dozens of musicians on the stage, including a full orchestral ensemble and choir. A large drum set sat in the center of the stage and several electric guitars sat on stands with headsets attached to them. “Dad put a band together with the information that Julia gave us of former patients. It turns out that every single one of the former patients are musicians of varying skill. I sent them the songs that Calypso made here at the cabin. I figure we can play the new ones and kill the nanobots, then move on to her older content.”

“And you didn’t think giving us a little warning would be a good idea?” Aria demanded, her stomach already filled with butterflies, which didn’t make sense because she didn’t have a stomach.

“Hell no, I wasn’t going to warn you,” Clarice laughed impishly. “You would have chickened out.”

The musicians on the stage were just finishing up a song and hadn’t noticed the small gateway that had opened up on the side of the stage. Several people in the audience had noticed, however, and were craning their necks to try and get a better look.

“Come on, Tweedle Dee,” Clarice grinned as the song finished. She grabbed Aria in one hand and Calypso in the other, then dragged them both through the gateway.

Aria blinked as she looked out at the crowd. She had thought it would be a small audience hall, but it was a full-sized concert hall with thousands of seats full of Calypso fans. They clearly were not expecting Calypso to make an appearance. The cheering cut off like a light switch as Clarice dragged the two reluctant angels along with her toward the guitars. The audience stared in stupefied shock as the three angels arrived at the guitars. You could have heard a pin drop. The musicians looked as stunned as the audience as Calypso hesitantly picked up a guitar and pulled the strap over her head. Clarice took the headset and began to put it onto Calypso’s head, but the Seraph shook her head with a small smile. “No need.”

“Dad posted a live event for Calypso’s YouTube channel right before Calypso played for the hospitals,” Clarice told them as she put her own guitar strap over her shoulder. “There are probably hundreds of millions of people watching right now. Don’t let them down, Calypso.” Clarice grinned at Calypso as she finished.

Calypso took a deep breath as she looked out at the crowd that sat in stunned silence watching them. “Hello everyone. Shall we get started?”

Her voice effortlessly carried to every corner of the concert hall. There was a pause, then a wall of noise flooded the room as everyone in the audience surged to their feet and roared with excitement.

Clarice beckoned to the woman who had been handling the lead vocals before they arrived. Rather than try to talk over the noise, she made a telepathic connection to the woman. Do you mind switching to accompaniment and letting Calypso take over lead vocals?

The tall brunette was staring back and forth at Clarice and Calypso disbelievingly, her eyes wide with shock.

You still with us? Clarice asked her with an encouraging smile.

“Um, yeah,” the woman nodded, still looking daze. “I’m just going to sing accompaniment with Calypso.”

You’ve got this, Lori, Clarice told her with another encouraging smile.

“Live the Tale,” Calypso told the musicians, her voice easily carrying over the roar of the audience.

The musicians snapped out of their daze at her words, and they all readied themselves. Calypso nodded to the woman at the piano and the first notes began, followed almost immediately by the orchestra. Clarice joined in on the guitar as the rest of the musicians began to play. Calypso’s voice rang out above the instruments, easily carrying to every corner. Shockwaves of power radiated around the room as the instruments provided the substrate for Calypso’s transcendent voice to shake the world with her tale of beauty and triumph. The concert hall was charged with so much positive energy that small auroras spontaneously erupted throughout the space above them. The audience was completely gripped by the sublime riptide pulling them deeper into a world of fantasy and wonder beyond anything they could imagine. Calypso’s music reached deep into the soul and refined whatever it touched.

Clarice could hear the words of power that were woven into her words, wiping out any nanobots within range of her voice.

As the first song ended, the audience stood in silence, too entranced to react. They stood in stupefied wonder as they heard the difference of her live performance compared to hearing a YouTube recording. The musicians were watching Calypso in reverence. They had all heard her sing to them at some point in the hospital, but the difference when playing with a full ensemble was a life-changing experience. Her skill at composing each instrument and each note in a formula that equaled transcendental perfection was nothing short of divine.

The crowd slowly awakened from their trance. They finally returned to reality and went wild with cheers. Calypso noticed a woman with a child who was struggling to see over the heads of the adults in front of him. He was missing one of his legs, with a prosthetic on one side. She opened a portal directly in front of the woman and her child and waved with a welcoming smile. The woman gasped as Calypso gestured for them to come through. The child didn’t take additional prompting, hurrying through to stand in front of Calypso. The woman hesitantly followed, looking self-conscious as she appeared on the stage in front of thousands of people.

“Hello, Caleb,” Calypso greeted the child warmly, dropping down on one knee. “Would you like me to fix your leg?”

“You can do that?” Caleb asked in awe. His mother stared at her in wonder, taking in her wings and swirling eyes.

“Yep,” Calypso confirmed with a nod. “All I need in return is a hug.”

Caleb grinned and threw his arms around her neck. Calypso blazed brightly as she spoke several words of power. The prosthetic fell to the ground as a fully fleshed leg replaced it.

Caleb released her and looked down at his new leg in astonishment. He lifted it and twisted it about experimentally before looking up at her with a huge smile. “Thank you, Calypso!”

“You’re so welcome, Caleb,” Calypso smiled at him, rising to her feet again. She looked at the dumbfounded mother and smiled warmly. “You’re a wonderful mother, Anna. I’m glad you came here tonight.”

Anna blinked back tears as she smiled. “Thank you so much, Calypso. You really are an angel.”

“Was it the wings that gave it away?” Calypso asked playfully, her eyes twinkling.

Anna laughed as tears fell down her cheeks.

“I hope you two enjoy the rest of the show,” Calypso told them brightly.

Anna and Caleb went back through the portal and Calypso closed it. The audience had been silent as they watched the miracle unfold. There were a lot of tears in the audience as they watched her with something close to worship.

“200 years,” Calypso called over to the musicians. “And nice work on those drums, Dimitrios. You were perfect.”

The drummer’s face flushed with pleasure as he looked back at her with a pleased grin.

The night was filled with intense emotional energy as Calypso sang her vision of reality into the air. She had opened her aura during the second song, flooding the audience with her love and hope. The night had been a deeply moving religious experience for the excited audience. When they finally finished the performance several hours later, there were localized auroral discharges filling the concert hall. It would be a night to tell their children and grandchildren about.

At the end of the concert, Calypso looked out at the rapt faces with eyes full of love and once again unfurled her aura, wrapping them in her love. She held her hand up high in farewell and made a gateway back to the cabin. The three of them walked back into the living room, their faces glowing with satisfaction.

“I told you that you’d do great,” Clarice told them smugly.

Aria had totally lost all sense of self as she played, completely in the zone. The audience had barely existed for her as she was pulled into Calypso’s divine music.

“Do we have any confirmation that the nanobots were destroyed?” Calypso asked Devon as he entered the room.

He nodded, smiling broadly. “I’ve been receiving messages from contacts for the last two hours. Some of them just happened to be nearby someone who’s phone started playing the song and it still healed them. I think what you have done here tonight will probably cripple the agency. There are a lot of contractors who are never going to look at the agency again. There will be some organizations out there who will actively attack the agency when they discover their weakness.

“I would like to offer my congratulation as well,” a smooth voice said as a demon lord appeared in their living room.

Aria stared at him, waiting for the barest hint of aggression to fry him.

“Lucifer,” Arturiel greeted the demon lord with a deep bow, her voice filled with respect.

“Lucifer?” Aria gasped in amazement. “Like Satan and Beelzebub?”

“The very same,” Lucifer replied with a wry smile. He turned back to Arturiel. “You need not bow to me, Arturiel. I have never stood on formality.

Aria sniffed the air curiously, smelling no trace of demon. “Did you learn to hide the demon stink or something?”

“The stench is metaphorical,” Lucifer told her with a half-smile. “You’re sensing the state of their soul and interpreting it as a foul smell. Demons who have embraced their nature are going to smell a lot worse to you.”

“I see the party has already started,” Grodek noted as he popped into the room next to Lucifer. “Do you have the piece?”

Lucifer pulled the body of a violin out of a small portal in the air. It was missing the neck but was easily recognizable as part of a divine instrument. It was a brilliant white that seemed to have an inner glow. He offered it to Clarice. She stared at him curiously as she slowly reached out and took the broken instrument, her hands shaking.

As her hands touched it there was a small, inverted shockwave that rippled inward toward Clarice. Her eyes widened and her lips parted with a gasp. Aria could feel something twist around her sister’s soul, wrapping tightly around it before dissolving into it. Her presence expanded dramatically as she became more…whole.

“You’ve lucked out,” Grodek told them gruffly. “Lucifer happened upon this while he was going through one of the demon vaults in the former North American Territory headquarters.

“Are you ready?” Calypso asked Lucifer intently, her eyes showing a sense of familiarity.

He nodded, his eyes bright and full of anticipation.

Calypso made the connection to his core and flashed to incandescence as she removed the portion of his soul that allowed for him to be changed into a demon. He closed his eyes as light radiated around him, filling the room. His bat-like wings shimmered and became double-layered wings. His eyes blazed with light for several seconds before dimming to a glowing sapphire blue. He was nearly seven feet tall and stood with a mantle of authority that was physically palpable.

“Thank you, Calypso,” Lucifer spoke in a deep, powerfully enchanting voice. He was awe inspiring to behold, his title of the Lord of the Morning apparent.

Grodek suddenly started cackling madly, his eyes full of evil glee.

Lucifer watched him with an amused smile. “I take it there were some ripples.”

“More like a tsunami,” Grodek sniggered malevolently. “They all felt your return. There’s a general panic washing through the ranks of boot lickers and toadies. Azriel said that Michael is petitioning the Seraphim for a full-scale attack, trying to get them to leave the realm and come down here. He’s not having much luck. Leaving the higher realms isn’t pleasant when they’re used to energy that is several orders of magnitude greater than the mortal realm offers. Now that there are more Seraphim here, with divine instruments, the other Seraphim are probably shitting their metaphorical pants.”

“Lucifer is a Seraph?” Emily gasped in amazement. “I thought he was a Cherub.”

“They certainly wanted everyone to think that,” Grodek snorted in amusement. “They couldn’t have people losing faith in the Seraphim and believing them to be fallible.”

“How did they turn a Seraph into a demon?” Emily asked with a troubled frown.

“That answer will require a bit of background. There were nine of us in the beginning,” Lucifer told her. “We shaped reality and created the other realms according to instructions from what you think of as God. When reality was shaped and life seeded with the triads of angels, we remained in the highest light realm, where only Seraphim and their Cherubim can survive the ambient energy permeating the realm. We studied our work from afar, trying to understand what God is. This mortal realm is a finite place with finite laws and rigid rules governing reality. It would be difficult for you to comprehend the limitless nature of the light realms without remembering your time there. After more time than you can comprehend with your mortal limitations, there was discord in the lower light realms. Angels are immortal entities that cannot die. When we were informed that some angels were growing disconsolate with their existence in the lower light realms and that they had begun to torment other angels, we granted the Cherubim the power to extinguish life. Some angels wished for a release from life as boredom robbed them of reason and passion. The Cherubim were given instructions to accommodate those who wished for an end. They were also instructed to maintain order when angels preyed upon the agency of other angels. This worked well, for a time. Eventually, however, more angels grew bored of eternity. The number of angels requesting an end became alarming enough that we searched for information from God for an answer. The solution was to create the mortal realm and allow angels to incarnate their souls in physical bodies, where they would forget who they were, for a time, and experience the dichotomy of pain and pleasure, fear and joy, love and hate, in order to better cope with eternal life. This was a partial success, resulting in angels who found a renewed passion for eternal life. With memories of their mortality and the emotional growth it imbues, angels no longer took the positive energy filling their immortal bodies for granted. Eternal life became a place of beauty and passion. However, not all of the angels were willing to experience mortality. They feared the loss of their power and memories, as well as the pain and suffering mortality inflicts on the soul. Only about a third of all angels had experienced mortality when the other Cherubim convinced their Seraphim that mortality should only be used for angels who were disruptive to the agency of other angels. I was only one of four Seraphim to experience mortality at that point. Four of our number decided that mortality should be a prison for the unruly until they were rehabilitated. It was clear to me and the other four Seraphim that this was a system that was ripe for abuse. We organized the angels who had experienced mortality and made it clear that we would not accept this system. We suggested that everyone undergo at least one mortal life. The Seraphim were poisoned against us by their Cherubim, convincing them that we were attempting to remove them from power. Using the divine instruments of creation, the four Seraphim tried to kill us, but ended up transforming us into demons and mortals when the divine instruments wouldn’t allow our unmaking. The four Seraphim sent angels and archangels down to watch over humans to ensure that the demons they had converted from angels would only torment them enough to ensure they learned their lesson. They believed that adversity and suffering would result in more compliant angels when they returned. They left their Cherubim and Dominions in charge of the operation. The Cherubim and their Dominions made sure that the angels sent down to protect and guide the humans were eventually all converted into demons. They turned it into a prison realm to keep the Seraphim and Cherubim who were betrayed from returning and exacting revenge or forcing them to experience mortality. For many immortals, the thought of an end is more terrifying than anything they can imagine, and mortality would be a kind of end for them. Experiencing a mortal life results in significant changes to the soul. Things like compassion, empathy, and love can only be learned by experiencing pain and loss.”

Arturiel was staring at him with as much astonishment as the rest of them. She had clearly believed she was on a mission to help troubled angels become respectful angels when she was sent to the mortal realm. There was a growing anger in her eyes as she realized she had not only been deceived but had been purposely subjected to the horrors of becoming a demon just so that some Cherubim could avoid experiencing mortality one time.

“That explains…a lot,” Clarice commented, her face pensive. “How did a Seraphim seed end up in Calypso if you were all sent down here at the same time? Where do you even get a Seraphim seed?”

“There are no such thing as seeds,” Lucifer answered with an ironic smile. “At least, there are no class related seeds. There is only the transfer of angelic essence that reawakens who you already were. Calypso was a Seraph, as were the two of you.” Lucifer nodded at Aria and Clarice.

“Uh, we’re clearly Cherubim,” Clarice corrected him matter-of-factly. “Note the golden eyes and laser beams we shoot to vaporize things.”

“Do you really think a Seraph cannot do the same things that a Cherub can do?” Lucifer asked her, amusement in his eyes. “You have awakened the abilities you believed you needed to protect Calypso. You are both Seraphim.”

Arturiel was staring at them with disbelieving eyes. Her parents didn’t look nearly as surprised. Her father looked satisfied while their mother looked smug. Calypso’s face was full of affection but not surprise. Aria wondered if she had known or at least suspected. Lexi was grinning without any sign of surprise either. She probably expected no less of Clarice.

“What was all that talk about warrior and bard classes when we talked to you earlier, Grodek?” Aria demanded suspiciously. “If classes don’t even exist, why did you tell us she was a bard?”

“Did I tell you she was a bard?” Grodek asked with a sly grin.

Aria rewound her memory and studied the conversation with Grodek. She frowned as she realized he hadn’t even shown any kind of affirmative reaction to Clarice’s question.

“You said healers heal, warriors kill, and singers sing,” Aria declared with a frown. “What else were we supposed to make of that?”

“You were supposed to think of yourselves as warriors, that’s what,” Grodek smirked, looking satisfied. “The last thing you two needed was to start developing healing powers when demons were trying to capture you.”

“You were just manipulating us then?” Aria responded critically.

“Yep, that’s exactly what I was doing,” Grodek agreed pleasantly.

“What about the phrase that you have to say to activate it?” Aria asked intently. “Is it just the same for everyone? They have to say they want to vanquish evil?”

“The mortal realm was initially designed to rehabilitate angels that were troublemakers,” Lucifer explained patiently. “When you say you want to vanquish evil, or any other similar variant after receiving an angel tear, you are declaring your virtue and desire for righteousness instead of evil. The angels who were meant to assist mortals were instructed to use their judgement when they believed a mortal was ready to ascend. Since an angel can’t be compelled to cry, it was decided to use angel tears as the method to initiate the transformation.”

“Who’s this fifth Seraph?” Clarice asked shrewdly. “It’s you, isn’t it, Grodek?”

“Give the girl a gold sticker,” Grodek drawled sarcastically, his eyes amused.

“So, it’s not four Seraphim against two Seraphim,” Clarice grinned, her eyes triumphant. “It’s four against five. Is that why they haven’t attacked?”

“They’re just a bunch of cowards,” Grodek snorted disgustedly. “They are all four afraid of the changes mortality will make to their souls. The idea of leaving the higher light realm to do battle in the mortal realm with the chance that one of them might die terrifies them. Nothing can die on the highest light realm, so they are hiding up there like the cowards they are.”

“Lucifer, you said that only four Seraphim had experienced mortality,” Clarice commented as she faced the Lord of the Morning. “Who was the fifth Seraph that remained? Grodek?”

“You are correct,” Lucifer nodded, a grim smile on his face. “He wasn’t opposed to experiencing mortality eventually. After we were forcibly incarcerated in the mortal realm, Grodek took two of the divine instruments and hid them on the mortal realm. He didn’t just hide them though,” Lucifer grinned as he continued. “He bound one of them to the Lore Boar for safekeeping. The harp was embedded in the Tree of Life until he removed it and placed it in a place where Calypso’s father would find it. When the other Seraphim discovered what he had done, they attempted to unmake him with the remaining two instruments, but the instruments broke while they were in use and fell to the mortal realm, scattering across planet Earth. He ended up as an imp, instead of being unmade. He remains unconstrained by the mortal realm and is still able to visit the higher light realms.”

“What about the fourth instrument?” Emily asked curiously. She and Eric had been listening to the conversation with rapt attention, their expressions fascinated. “Who will possess the fourth divine instrument now that Aria, Clarice, and Calypso are in possession of three of them?”

Lucifer pulled out the neck of a guitar. “I have part of the guitar. I believe Grodek gave you some clues on where to look for some of the pieces. That is the most important task right now. Once the four instruments have been restored, we will no longer need to worry about the other Seraphim. We will have the power to rewrite reality, consigning them to mortality if we so choose. Calypso has already rewritten reality several times on a localized level. One of those times was raising Arturiel to an archangel.”

“She doesn’t need all four instruments to rewrite reality?” Emily asked in surprise.

“Not for small events,” Lucifer replied with a shrug. “You only need all four to rewrite the foundations of reality, such as making a Seraph into a mortal.”

“I knew that wasn’t supposed to be possible,” Arturiel declared with a grin.

They all paused, and Aria’s sixth sense flared with alarm. She teleported above the house and saw hundreds of fiery missiles raining down from the sky above. Lucifer appeared next to her and spoke a single word of power. All of the lights in the sky suddenly winked out of existence. There was no angel fire or destructive wave, just a single word. It tickled something in the back of her mind, or perhaps her soul.

Clarice and Calypso had also teleported at the same time. Arturiel rushed out of the house and flew up to them, the others not far behind.

“It looks like the demons of the other territories panicked and thought a full nuclear strike would accomplish something,” Lucifer observed with a shake of his head. “They’re not thinking very clearly if they think nukes can harm immortal beings.”

“It might not be us they are targeting,” Arturiel commented with a frown. “They might be trying to plunge the world into chaos by starting a nuclear world war. It might be their only way to prevent society from galvanizing against them, especially now that Saturn’s apathy modulator has been neutralized. Humans will be rising up against their governments as they regain their sense of passion.”

“Is that what that thing on Saturn was?” Aria asked in surprise. “We weren’t sure what it did, but Calypso was sure it needed to go.”

“That was you?” Arturiel asked in surprise, staring at her in amazement.

“Yeah. We were doing a little exploring since we were able to travel through space at ridiculous speeds,” Aria explained, smiling slightly at the memory. “We decided to stop by Saturn on the way back to see the hexagon. When we went down into the vortex, we found that macro circuit transforming the EM field into a vortex and creating some kind of interplanetary resonance. The structure was insanely huge. Calypso had me vaporize it because she sensed it was demonic in nature. I’ve been wondering what it actually did.”

Arturiel shook her head, staring at Aria in amazement. “It’s hard to imagine just how much more powerful you are than the average angel.”

“You’re pretty powerful too, you know,” Aria told her pointedly. “Weren’t you the one that told me archangels were significantly more powerful than angels?”

“Oh, they are,” Arturiel assured her with a rueful smile. “I’m an army ant to a sugar ant, while you are human to both ants. Your power is not even comparable to ours.”

“Army ants are pretty freaking scary,” Aria declared fervently. “Drop a human in an army ant nest and see what happens.”

“We should probably make sure there aren’t any nukes dropping elsewhere in the world,” Arturiel suggested with an anxious frown.

Aria opened up a series of twenty different gateways into the sky, each one covering a different part of the globe. “I don’t see any above any of the major European or Asian cities.” She opened a few more gateways in Russia and the Middle East. “Looks like all of the major nuclear powers are in the clear.”

Arturiel was staring at her in awe again as she closed all of the portals.

“What?” Aria asked curiously.

“You just open up portals like it’s nothing,” Arturiel breathed in amazement. “I’ve seen archangels spend up to an hour trying to get a single portal to open correctly. I’ve heard Principalities and Dominions can open them quickly, but you just opened dozens at the same time.”

“It’s just a matter of connecting the correct nodes in the cosmic meridians,” Aria explained with a self-deprecating shrug. “It just takes a little while to get used to using your spiritual vision to see the hidden world of energy overlaying the physical plane.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Arturiel covered a small smile as she looked around. She was slowly flapping her wings to stay aloft, reminding Aria of how useful it was to be able to hover effortlessly.

“Maybe’s it’s time to rid this world of nukes,” Clarice muttered darkly. “It wouldn’t take us very long, and it would get rid of a lot of future threats if nobody had nukes. Since we can vaporize them, it doesn’t even leave any radiation behind.”

Lucifer chuckled at her suggestion. “That would certainly have far reaching geopolitical ramifications if it became known that nobody had nukes anymore.”

“I think it’s time for Calypso to show us how to redeem demons,” Aria announced firmly. “If we really are Seraphim and have that kind of power, we should start redeeming any demons we come across while we are hunting down those instruments.”

“We could multitask,” Lexi offered suggestively. “I could go take out the nukes while you focus on finding the remains of the divine instruments.”

“Not a bad idea,” Aria tilted her head to the side thoughtfully. “I think you should have someone with you though. I don’t like the idea of anyone going off alone.”

“I could go with Lexi,” Emily offered helpfully. “If you don’t mind showing us how to open portals, your dad and I would appreciate it.”

Aria hid a grin as she turned to her mother and showed her a slow example of opening a portal. It took her mother a few minutes to wrap her head around the concept, but she eventually got it. “Now you and Dad can have some alone time somewhere off planet.”

“Thanks, Aria,” she said dryly.

“Well, I’m off to gloat,” Grodek announced with a chortle. “I don’t want to miss any of the gnashing of teeth going on upstairs right now. It’s going to be the highlight of the millennium.”

Grodek vanished with a pop, leaving a chuckling Lucifer behind.

“What are you going to do?” Aria asked Lucifer curiously. I’m questioning Satan. This is just too freaking surreal.

“I’m going to start redeeming demons I know,” Lucifer answered with an eager grin. “There are a lot of demons who have unjustly suffered long enough.”

“You know how?” Aria asked in surprise.

“I’m one of the Seraphim that created the design for the energy inverter in the first place,” Lucifer reminded her.

“Oh yeah,” Aria said with a frown. “That’s right, Grodek had said that it was by design.”

“It was never meant to make demons, however,” Lucifer grimaced darkly. “That was just an exploit used by Raphael and Gabriel.”

“I guess I’ll see you around, Satan,” Aria couldn’t not say it.

Lucifer threw his head back and laughed. “That was a lovely piece of propaganda. Take care, Aria. I know you don’t remember me yet, but when you reach full ascension again your memories will return. Enjoy your ignorance while you have it. You’ll look back on these days with fondness.”

Chapter 20

“It feels like this puzzle is starting to finally form a coherent picture,” Clarice remarked as she sat hovering cross legged in the air in the veranda.

Lucifer and Grodek had left on their own missions. Aria was standing at the edge of the veranda looking down into the valley. Lexi was imitating Clarice’s pose in the air next to her while Calypso stood next to Aria. Devon was visiting with Tamra at her house again while their parents were vacationing in the cabin Clarice had teleported to the world beneath the sun’s shell.

“It is eerily similar to what Emily and Devon were contemplating while you two were instrument shopping the other day,” Calypso told them musingly. “I wonder how much of the information they theorized about came from their soul memory.”

“It’s kind of funny when you think about it,” Clarice noted with a faint smile. “If we really are all Seraphim, all of the answers to everything we’ve been searching for are already buried somewhere in our soul memory. We just don’t have access to it yet because we haven’t finished ascending. Maybe that’s what this intuition is that Calypso is pulling from.”

“I still can’t believe we are Seraphim,” Aria commented disbelievingly. “We had this entire character class we had convinced ourselves we belonged to that was limiting our growth this whole time.”

“I can’t believe I’m in the presence of not one, but three Seraphim,” Arturiel breathed, shaking her head in wonder. “You are literally the ones who created me and all of the other angels. There was so much that I thought I understood that was wrong.”

Aria suddenly laughed as she stared out over the verdant green valley below them.

“What are you laughing at, Tweedle Dee?” Clarice asked, raising an amused eyebrow.

“You were right about Calypso from the start, Clarice,” Aria declared, her voice filled with mirth. “She was an amnesiac angel. Twice. First, it was due to Carcelonia wiping her memory, and second, it was due to being stuck in the mortal realm. She won’t have her memories back until she fully ascends, like the rest of us.”

Calypso shared a look with Clarice and they both began laughing as well.

“Sometimes the first observation is the correct one,” Clarice observed with an amused smile.

“Do you realize we’ve been going nonstop for a week now?” Aria commented thoughtfully. “It really shows just how different an immortal body is when I can feel just as energized and relaxed as I would have been after a week of sleep when we were mortal.”

“It has been a busy week, hasn’t it?” Clarice agreed wryly, shaking her head as she thought about how far they had come in such a short time. “We really floundered a lot in the beginning, trying to figure out what angels were. Grodek didn’t help with some of his misleading comments. We were afraid that we would be raising humans to angels who would be overpowered, but it all just depends on who they were before they were consigned to this mortality prison. I suppose the fact that Lexi, Mom, and Dad are Cherubim contributed to that mistaken belief.”

“According to Lucifer, one third of all angels have experienced mortality,” Aria frowned, glancing at Arturiel. “Plus, any angels who were sent down to police the mortal realm and were then transformed into demons. I wonder what the percentage of angels is now who have the capacity for empathy and compassion?”

“Hmmm…” Clarice’s eyes suddenly widened as a thought occurred to her. “Oh wow.”

“What?” Lexi asked intently, unconsciously leaning closer to her.

“It just hit me that this really is a prison,” Clarice announced, her eyes wide as she stared at Lexi in dawning realization. “Should we be raising every human we come across to an angel? It doesn’t actually make sense to leave them as mortals when they are literally trapped here until we help them ascend. They are just like us and have been trapped here in an endless cycle of incarnations when they should be freed from this prison realm.”

“What about the angels that were sent here due to their behavior?” Aria asked, her voice troubled. “As well as all of the families still raising children?”

“I think it would make more sense to make an exit to this realm upon death,” Calypso suggested contemplatively. “This world will be uninhabitable for anyone who wishes to stay and raise their families if we free the rest of the humans. Society has become completely dependent on the centralized supply chain for food and goods necessary for survival here.”

“I’m not so sure,” Clarice disagreed with a shake of her head. “Calypso, you ascended when you were just a child, so we know that children could also be raised. They would be looking at a few decades to grow up, but they wouldn’t need to worry about any of the normal human necessities for survival. There would be enough angels who cared about their loved ones that they would stay and help anyone who chose to finish out their mortality in a world that was more primitive. All of the industrial waste would be a simple matter for us to vaporize from existence, so they wouldn’t have to worry about an industrial meltdown poisoning the water and land when the workforce vanished. Can we really just leave all of these people in this prison while we walk free?”

“We need more information on how angels are consigned to mortality,” Aria said slowly. “If less than half of all angels have experienced mortality, we still need to see to it that the remaining angels in the light realm experience it too, whether they want to or not. What is the mechanism in place that is injecting our souls into human bodies? When does it happen?”

“Oh no, this sounds like a pro-life argument waiting to happen,” Clarice sighed in a mock resignation. “But yes, I see your point. Something is capturing angel souls and forcing them into mortal bodies. We will need to have control over whatever mechanism is being used to make immortals into mortals.”

“Won’t it take a crazy amount of time for us to free all of the people who are trapped here?” Lexi asked doubtfully.

“Think pyramid scheme,” Clarice responded with a wry grin. “Every angel we help ascend is one more angel to help continue freeing other mortals from this prison. It will be exponential and won’t take more than a few weeks at most.”

“What about people like Uncle Devon who want to remain and have children?” Aria asked dubiously. “Do we just tell them too bad, and they’ll thank us later?”

“No, remember, there are still plenty of angels who need to experience mortality,” Clarice reminded her with a grin. “All of the assholes that sent us here in the first place.”

“We should talk to Grodek and Lucifer first,” Aria decided firmly. “They’ll probably have more insight into how this soul trap works and what freeing everyone would look like.”

“But in the meantime,” Clarice said with an eager smile. “I say we stop being particular about who we help ascend. People like Julia and the others are open game now.”

“I have a feeling that we could transform everyone back using the divine instruments, should we need to,” Calypso pointed out, her eyes growing introspective. “There’s a lot we will be able to do with the divine instruments that will require careful thought. We’ve lived in this mortal realm for who knows how many iterations over the last several thousand years. Perhaps there are changes that should be made to how things operate that will still offer people the growth they need without the horrors this world has inflicted on so many of us.”

Aria wrapped an arm around Calypso protectively, sympathy filling their bond. Calypso had certainly learned first-hand the horrors this world could subject a person to, at an age no person should ever have to experience it. Clarice felt a sense of rage burn hotly in her core as she thought of the Seraphim responsible for their incarceration and Calypso’s subsequent torture. How much had she suffered at their direction? Could they have been involved in her ordeal at a more personal level in an attempt to break her?

“Are you okay?” Lexi asked anxiously, her large golden eyes filled with concern.

Aria and Calypso had turned to stare at her in concern as well, the spiritual bond that connected them making her emotions an extension of their own.

“If I find even a hint that the other Seraphim had a role in your ordeal, there will be tales of the horror they will suffer that will echo into the halls of eternity,” Clarice grated, her eyes filled with dreadful promise.

She felt fiery rage ignite from Lexi and Aria at her words.

“Yes, there will be,” Aria agreed, her face as cold as an arctic gale.

Lexi nodded fiercely, her lips tight with rage.

They all felt the tripwire alarm in the nodes that connected them to Jason as danger flared in his mind. Clarice immediately teleported to his location, her mind speeding up as time slowed down.

Jason was plunging over the edge of an eight-story building, nearly halfway to the ground. She dove down and caught him twenty feet above the ground, dropping down quickly to reduce the impact as she pulled him close.

“You sure do get into trouble a lot,” she commented dryly. “What happened?”

Aria and Lexi were already bursting through a broken window on the top story, their minds sharp with focus.

Jason’s eyes were bugging out as they slowly landed on the ground, and she set him down. “I so thought I was a goner that time.”

“We told you that we would keep you safe,” Clarice reminded him with an amused twinkle in her eyes. ‘Where’s the trust?”

“Somewhere up there still,” Jason panted, gesturing toward the top of the eight-story building. “How the hell did you know I was in trouble?”

“Think of all of the people we watch over as belonging to a psychic web,” Clarice explained, looking up to see Lexi dragging a man out of the window with her as she dropped down toward them. “We can feel when you have a spike of adrenaline or intense fear.”

“So, you’re becoming omnipresent?” Jason asked with a laugh that wasn’t quite hysterical.

There were dozens of students gawking at the angels that had suddenly appeared in their midst. Phones were coming out as they raced each other to post the latest angel video to social media.

Lexi landed next to them, her hand gripping the back of a large man’s neck. She was squeezing hard enough that if he tried to escape it would result in a broken neck. Clarice couldn’t smell the stench of demon on him, which meant he was human.

“Is this the guy that pushed you?” Clarice asked, studying the man curiously. He was only a few inches taller than her, but very muscular. He had short hair and a face only a mother could love. He looked about thirty years old and had several scars on his cheeks. His eyes were filled with loathing as he stared at her, pinned in place by Lexi’s grip.

“I have no idea,” Jason admitted, slowly calming down as his breathing slowed down. His hands were trembling from the adrenaline burnout. “I didn’t see anything. I was just walking down the hall, and someone shoved me through the window.”

“Well, Thomas, what do you have to say for yourself?” Clarice asked the man with a raised eyebrow. “Is there a reason you decided to defenestrate Jason?”

“I’m still intact,” Jason objected indignantly.

“What do you think defenestrate means, Jason?” Clarice asked, her lips twitching.

Jason stared at her, his cheeks coloring. “Oh. It means something else, doesn’t it?”

“What did you think it meant?” Clarice asked, her lips turning up at the corners.

“It doesn’t matter,” Jason mumbled, brushing his hand through his hair awkwardly.

“You must have thought it meant something,” Clarice pushed, her grin widening.

“Leave him alone,” Aria told her reproachfully as she suddenly appeared next to them. “What’s the story with Thomas here?”

“We hadn’t gotten that far yet,” Clarice winked at Jason. “We were exploring the English vocabulary.”

“So, he’s a member of Opus Dei?” Aria noted, clearly reading his thoughts. “I guess it was just a matter of time before the world religions started sniping at us. I wonder if he’s here as a result of humans or demons.”

“Probably demons,” Clarice decided with a shrug. “They know they can’t get close to Jason without us detecting their stench, so they probably decided to send a human.”

“You can tell if demons are near me based on their stench?” Jason asked dubiously. “Wouldn’t I be the one smelling them? Or are you able to smell through my nose?”

“It’s a metaphorical stink,” Clarice explained patiently. “Their souls are rotten. While you might not be able to detect one with your nose, your spirit will certainly recognize one and alert us.”

“I thought you were studying cyber security,” Aria told Jason with a frown. “Why are you in building 36?”

“Um, a friend invited me to come see one of the labs she works in,” Jason answered, wisely avoiding Clarice’s gaze and missing the sudden leer.

“Oh, is it a girl friend, Jason?” Clarice asked archly, looking around for said girl in the growing crowd of students and faculty that were gathering around them.

The students close enough to hear their conversation were staring at Clarice nonplussed, clearly not expecting this kind of conversation from an angel.

“Yes, she’s a girl,” Jason admitted defensively. “And yes, she’s a friend.”

Clarice started to rise up into the air to look for said girl…friend, but Aria grabbed her arm and pulled her back down.

“Focus, Clarice,” Aria said crisply. “What are we going to do with Thomas? If we let him go, they’ll probably just kill him. Should we just turn him into an angel?”

Thomas had remained stoically silent for the entire exchange, glaring at them with hate filled eyes. As soon as Aria suggested turning him into an angel he began thrashing wildly, almost breaking his own neck as he struggled to escape Lexi’s grip.

“Damn fundamentalists,” Clarice growled in exasperation, preparing to smack him on the neck to knock him out, but Calypso rested her hand on Clarice’s arm to restrain her.

“Thomas, we won’t turn you into an angel if you don’t want to be an angel,” Calypso told the flailing man gently. “You’re free to go as far as we are concerned. However, I’m guessing the local law enforcement will not be as lenient.”

Even as she finished speaking, several campus police officers arrived with their tazers out. They came to a halt after pushing their way through the large crowd of students and faculty, staring at the angels in shock.

“Release the man and get down on the ground with your hands on your head,” the first officer, a woman with striking hazel eyes and rich brown hair demanded in a commanding voice. Most of her hair was in a bun underneath a police cap. She looked young, probably no older than nineteen. The two men accompanying her were not nearly as bold, lowering their tazers when they realized they were pointing at angels.

“What’s it to be?” Clarice asked Thomas conversationally. “Do you want to leave in their custody, or ours?”

Thomas spat at her, his eyes full of venom. Clarice didn’t bother dodging. She vaporized the spit out of the air with a short blast from her eyes.

The officer took that as her cue and fired her tazer at Clarice. Clarice’s hand blurred as she grabbed the prongs out of the air with her hand, holding the wires between her fingers. She shook violently for several seconds before stopping and grinning at the officer.

“Sorry, I couldn’t resist,” Clarice apologized, her eyes full of mirth. “Did you really think a tazer was going to do anything? Honest question.”

The woman narrowed her eyes and dropped the tazer, replacing it with her handgun.

“Mary, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” one of the other officers told her nervously. “You’re going to get yourself vaporized.”

“Grow a pair,” she snarled at him, flipping the safety off and aiming it at Clarice. She glared, her eyes full of anger. “Don’t make me ask again. Get down on the ground with your hands behind your head.”

“I am so tempted to actually do it, just to see where this would take us, Mary” Clarice told the woman with a slow, sensuous wink. “You could do the whole sexy woman in a uniform act, then we could move on to a dominatrix act with those cuffs when things heat up.”

“I’m not related to her,” Aria told the officer as she facepalmed. “Seriously, we just happened to bump into each other a few minutes ago.”

Lexi was struggling not to laugh as she continued holding Thomas up by the back of the neck, her back to the officers. Calypso looked like she was just along for the popcorn as she watched Clarice with a small smile.

The officer licked her lips as she put more pressure on the trigger. Clarice could tell by the look in her eyes that she knew it wouldn’t do any good. She clearly had a chip on her shoulders with angels and wanted to settle some kind of score.

“You can shoot,” Clarice told her encouragingly. “I’m just going to vaporize the bullets out of the air, so you might as well get it out of your system, whatever it is.”

This isn’t right, Mary thought as doubts began growing in her mind. They’re not acting anything like I thought they would. If they really do serve that bastard of a god, they aren’t acting like the angels in stories. But if angels really exist, why couldn’t they have saved Alexis?

“We don’t serve a god,” Clarice told her gently. “Your Alexis isn’t really gone.”

That was the wrong thing to say, Clarice reflected as she vaporized bullet after bullet while Marry screamed and squeezed the trigger over and over. When she finished emptying her clip, she launched herself at Clarice with a cry of rage.

Where were they when Alexis was sold off like cattle? her thoughts raged as she hammered futilely on Clarice’s shoulders and chest, even kicking her ankles. Clarice just stood there and let her unleash her rage. How can they strut around like gods while letting predators steal children all over the world? They weren’t there for her when she needed them most!

Clarice saw the image of the girl Mary was thinking of, a fourteen-year-old Lexi with eyes still full of life. Aria and Calypso had clearly been listening to her thoughts as well. They shared a stunned look with each other, then looked at Lexi.

“What’s going on?” Lexi asked in sudden concern as she felt their shock.

At the sound of Lexi’s voice, Mary suddenly froze, turning to stare at Lexi with a mixture of disbelief and hope.

“Alexis?” Mary whispered disbelievingly.

Aria walked over and took charge of Thomas. “I think you have an overdue reunion,” Aria told Lexi gently.

Lexi relinquished Thomas to Aria and turned to stare in puzzlement at Mary. “Mary? Is that you?”

Mary’s eyes filled with tears as she stared at Lexi in amazement. “Is it really you?”

Lexi’s eyes were wide with shock as she stared at Mary. She blurred over to Mary, pulling her into a tight embrace, squeezing her eyes shut as quicksilver tears ran down her cheeks. Mary gasped as the power of Lexi’s love hit her like a truck. Her knees lost their strength as intense love washed through her system. A moment later, her neck began glowing as one of Lexi’s tears landed on it.

“Looks like we’re going to have one more angel,” Clarice commented with a wry smile at Calypso and Aria.

“What happened,” Mary finally asked Lexi, her face suffused with joy. “How are you an angel?”

“Those three saved me,” Lexi nodded at Clarice and the other two angels, her expression filled with love. “They stormed the mansion and vaporized the bastards holding us captive. They gave me the option to become an angel. We’ve been fighting demons and rescuing children ever since.”

You could have heard a pin drop in the crowd around them as the drama unfolded. Clarice felt a wild urge to shout BOO! to see what would happen.

“Come back with us,” Lexi told Mary, her voice filled with excitement. “I’ll tell you all about it. Some of the things I’ve learned are so crazy that it’s seriously going to blow your mind.”

Mary looked at Clarice, her expression becoming apologetic. “I’m sorry for attacking you. You saved my best friend. I’ll never be able to repay you.”

“Bring those cuffs along, and we’ll see,” Clarice suggested with a waggle of her eyebrows.

She dodged as Aria dropped Thomas and tried to tackle her, laughing as she teleported back to the cabin.

A moment later a gateway appeared, and Calypso came through, followed by Jason, Lexi and Mary. Clarice frowned when she didn’t see Aria. She reacted too late when Aria appeared above her, tackling her to the ground and giving her a knuckle noogie. “You are a bad angel.”

The gateway closed, with several phones videoing Aria wrapped around Clarice giving her a knuckle noogie from hell as they disappeared from view.

XXXXX

Scott shook himself as the angels vanished. The man they had been restraining by the neck took off running as soon as Aria tried to tackle Clarice. The police officers had been too stunned as one of their own voluntarily went through the portal with the angels. The police officer, this Mary, even seemed to know one of angels.

“Man, what the hell just happened?” his dorm mate, Chet, asked in astonishment, pressing stop on his phone’s video app. “I don’t even know where to start with how messed up that was.”

“Did anybody get the whole thing on video?” Scott asked the crowd curiously.

A Japanese student raised his phone up in acknowledgment. “I was filming the campus to make a draft for our virtual tour project when that Jason guy came flying out the window,” the man told them, his eyes full of excitement. “That super hawt angel just popped out of thin air and caught him while he was falling.”

“Which super hot angel?” Scott asked sarcastically. “I didn’t see any of them that weren’t super hot.”

“The flirty one,” the man grinned. “If that’s what heaven’s like, I swear to be good from now on.”

“Did I hear them correctly when they said they don’t serve a god?” a guy with a periodic table shirt asked with an eager gleam in his eyes. The shirt had the words ‘Can I lick it?’ written above the periodic table.

“Yeah, I’ve got it on video,” a woman confirmed, her face flushed with excitement. “I can’t believe we just saw freaking angels. Calypso was here too!”

“Did they offer to turn the guy that threw Jason out the window into an angel?” one of the women in the crowd asked, her eyes puzzled. “Why would they want a murderer as an angel?”

“Where’s Jason?” a pretty blonde woman with terrified blue eyes demanded as she ran out of the building and searched the area below the window where he had been pushed out. “Is he alive?”

“Freaking angels saved him,” Chet told her reassuringly. “They just popped into the air next to him while he was falling and saved him.”

The young woman relaxed slightly, though her eyes were still tight with anxiety. “Where is he? Did he get hurt?”

“He went through a portal with the angels-“ Chet broke off as a portal opened again.

Clarice marched over to the young woman with a mischievous grin on her face. “Hello, Susan. Can you follow me please? Jason’s freaking out about leaving you to freak out.”

Susan’s mouth dropped open as she stared at Clarice in shock, then at the portal behind the angel.

“It’s totally cool, you only end up with your legs on backward about half of the time when you go through a portal,” Clarice assured Susan with a playful smile.

“Jason’s with you?” Susan asked hesitantly, studying Clarice’s beautiful features nervously.

“Yep, my mom’s getting some food for him as we speak,” Clarice told her with a chuckle. “It’s a rough life for a chef in a house full of angels that don’t require food.”

“Hey Clarice, are you single?” a voice called out from further back in the crowd, clearly feeling brave from where they were hidden by the many bodies around them.

Clarice blinked in surprise, looking toward where the voice had called out to her. She narrowed her eyes for a moment before speaking. “No Derek, I’m with Calypso. Sorry.”

Scott watched the man named Derek blanche as he heard his name on her lips.

At Clarice’s answer there was a sudden ripple in the crowd as people began talking among each other excitedly.

“I thought god didn’t like gays?” a guy toward the back of the crowd called out derisively.

“God doesn’t love or hate,” Clarice replied dryly. “God just is. Don’t take any of that religious mumbo jumbo seriously. You’ll all understand soon enough.” Clarice turned back to Susan. “Shall we?”

“Is heaven real?” someone called out to her as they were moving back to the portal.

Clarice paused, a mischievous smile appearing on her exquisite face. “Yes, Jeremy, the sky is real.”

The angel finished entering the portal with Susan and it closed behind them silently.

Scott snorted with amusement. “The sky is real.”

Chet nudged him, leaning a little closer as he spoke. “Did you hear that girl, Lexi, say that the other angels had saved her from a mansion somewhere where she was being held captive?”

Scott nodded, his eyes hardening. It sounded like the angels had taken care of that particular vermin.

“They seem to be able to turn anyone they want into angels,” Chet said quietly. “She also said we would all understand soon enough. Do you think they plan on turning everyone into angels?”

Scott blinked, looking at Chet curiously. “Why would they turn everyone into angels?”

“Maybe it’s like the Borg, and they are just going to assimilate everyone,” Chet muttered with a shrug. “I don’t know where the thought even came from.”

A few of the people near them had overheard Chet and were nodding thoughtfully. Scott smiled wryly as he spoke. “I’m so ready to be a Borg.”

XXXXX

Jason was sitting at a table with Devon and Tamra. One of the perks for Tamra in having their mother for a future sister-in-law was that her cooking days were over. Their mother didn’t sleep and had super speed. Tamra hadn’t taken very long to give in when their mother had insisted she come over to the veranda for all of her daily meals. While their mother could no longer eat the food that she cooked, her sense of smell was so enhanced that she had actually improved her cooking skills after becoming an angel.

Jason sniffed the air as his stomach rumbled with anticipation. “That smells so freaking good.”

“I think I might never leave mortality if it means I could always have Emily’s cooking,” Devon commented with a sigh. “While it’s been great having the nieces around over the last week, the honest part of me will admit that Emily’s cooking is the true highlight of this new arrangement.”

“You’re such a glutton,” Aria told him fondly. “I have to point that out since it is one of the seven deadly sins and I’m an angel.”

Jason jumped up as he heard Susan’s voice from down in the front yard. He hurried over to the edge of the veranda to look down to where Clarice was exiting a portal with Susan. His friend who was a girl was staring at the cabin in appreciation as they crossed the small bridge where the creek ran through the front yard. She noticed him up on the veranda near the waterfall and he waved with a silly grin on his face. She smiled, her blue eyes filled with relief as she stared back at him.

“We have a lot to talk with you about, Susan,” he heard Clarice tell her as they moved into the house below them.

Jason went back to the entrance of the veranda and met Susan as Clarice brought her up. She had a wide mouth that smiled in a way that always made his knees week. She had always been self-conscious about it, even though Jason felt it was one of her most striking features.

“…she’s been dying to make food for more people than my uncle and Tamra, so you two are a…godsend…to her,” Clarice was saying as they came up the stairs.

Jason felt the silly grin back on his face as she smiled back at him. As soon as she reached him she pulled him into a tight hug, a small sob escaping as she held onto him.

“I thought you were gone,” she told him thickly, trying to control her voice. “I’m so glad I’ll get another chance to do this right.”

Jason blinked in confusion at her words. “Do what right?”

She pulled back from him, her beautiful tear-filled eyes studying his face. She took a deep, nervous breath, then pushed her lips to his.

He was so shocked that he just stood there at first. He felt a small shove from Clarice, and he finally snapped out of his shock and kissed her back, his heart hammering in his chest. He had never dared to try and move things past hugs before, feeling too shy and self-conscious.

She pulled back and stared into his eyes intently. “Do that right.”

“Oh,” his silly grin was back, making her laugh as she pulled him into another hug.

“Almost losing you made me realize all of the things I would have missed out on for being too chicken to get out of the friend zone,” Susan told him with another heart stopping smile.

“I see our plus one is here,” Emily noted as she brought two large platters of food through the door. “Hello, Susan, I’m Emily. I’m Aria and Clarice’s mother. It’s wonderful to meet you.”

Susan did a double take as she stared at the youthful woman claiming to be Aria and Clarice’s mother. A glance at her wings made it clear she was an angel. “Hello, Emily, it’s wonderful to meet you too. I can’t thank you and your daughters enough for saving Jason.”

“They’re pretty good at saving the day,” Emily declared with a fond smile at her daughters as she set the food down on one of the tables. “Come have a seat and relax. I’ll get you some tea.”

“Thank you, Emily,” Susan smiled gratefully as she sat down next to him.

“Is Mary going to be eating?” Emily inquired as she started a kettle heating. “Or is she going to leave mortality behind before her next meal?”

The angels all seemed to be listening to something Jason couldn’t hear before Emily nodded with a small smile. “I don’t blame her. We’ll be going over a lot of what we’ve learned with Jason and Susan, so bring her up when she’s ready.”

“Is that your super hearing at work?” Jason asked curiously.

“Yes, it is,” Emily replied with a chuckle. “Just remember, there’s nowhere within a mile of the house where you aren’t going to be heard by the rest of us, even if you’re whispering.”

“Jason mentioned you have super senses,” Susan commented, her eyes fascinated. “Is that how you knew he was in trouble?”

“That was more of a psychic link,” Calypso answered from where she sat on a tall barstool, the tips of her wings just touching the floor. “Now that I have met you, Susan, I have your spirit’s resonance cataloged in my memory. We’re all connected in a web of energy in the ethereal realm, so if I feel a sense of fear or danger disturb the threads connecting you to us, we’ll be there before you know it.”

“I’m assuming you have a much greater capacity for attention than humans,” Susan said with a half-smile. “I can’t imagine keeping track of all of the threads you must be watching.”

“Being an angel definitely upgrades the mind,” Aria agreed with a nod.

“So, tell me about the two of you?” Emily said as she poured the tea for Susan, her motherly tone at odds with her youthful features. “How long have you known each other? How did you meet?”

Jason chuckled as she bustled about them, her maternal manner putting them at their ease. “I spilled my coffee all over her when I was going into the cafeteria during my first week at MIT. I was looking the other way when I went around a corner and ran right into her.”

“He totally ruined my shirt,” Susan complained, her eyes playful. “He was so flustered and embarrassed that I actually felt sorry for him. He insisted on buying me a new shirt and tried to give me the money for it right then and there. I told him he would have to come and help me pick it out.”

“I can already imagine how red his face must have been,” Clarice commented with a laugh. “Jason is the quintessential computer nerd, with all of the social awkwardness that entails.”

“Yes, he looked like he was going to faint,” Susan recounted the experience with an amused grin. “Some girls find the confident smooth-talkers attractive. I’ve always been a sucker for the awkward ones. There’s just something endearing about his fumbling mannerisms. I think it’s his earnestness.”

“We know all about that,” Clarice grinned as she turned to look at Calypso. “Calypso has always had that earnest innocence and adorable naïveté that makes her irresistible.”

Calypso’s cheeks flushed at Clarice’s words, eliciting a delighted laugh from Clarice. “See what I mean?”

Susan laughed merrily as she watched them, her eyes full of curiosity. “Did you two just meet when all of that excitement started a week ago, or have you been together longer than that?”

“Aria and I visited her the day before that influencer exposed her identity,” Clarice revealed with a reminiscing smile. “It feels like a lifetime ago now. When we talked to her at the hospital after watching her heal some children, she was so full of innocence and love that you couldn’t not fall in love with her. We got her address and home phone from her while we were there, intent on driving her out to her hospital visits to heal children going forward. She was so lonely and desperate for friends but hadn’t realized it until we pushed ourselves into her life. She spent all of her time helping other people and had no one to care for her. It was like seeing her come out of hibernation in the warmth of spring when she finally had some friends to reciprocate some of the love that she so freely offered to everyone else.”

Calypso smiled at her with love in her large eyes as a golden tear ran down her cheek. Clarice and Aria smiled back at her, their eyes filled with love.

“So…um…never mind,” Jason stopped talking, blushing as he winced inwardly. Susan looked at him questioningly and he winced outwardly too.

“Yes, we both love her,” Clarice told him in a voice just short of laughter. “I wasn’t about to compete with Aria for Calypso’s affection. While we aren’t related by blood, I love Aria more than anyone could love a biological sister. We’ve been best friends since we were seven. We’ve been with each other through some of the worst life has to offer. We’ll be with each other forever now, and Calypso will be right there with us.”

“That’s beautiful,” Susan sniffed, dabbing at her eyes with a napkin.

“What’s dad up to?” Aria asked curiously. “Is he playing secret agent for Clarice again? I thought the two of you would be away for longer than a few hours.”

“He’s portaling Arturiel around to a few of the North American Territory offices,” Emily answered with a fond smile. Her smile faded to be replaced by a look of annoyance. “Clarice, we’ll have to find a better place than the sun for a vacation home, or at least a better place on the sun than where it was at. There were a bunch of megafaunas that live in that area. They decided the logs of the cabin were edible and started tearing the cabin apart. Luckily, our clothes weren’t on when they stepped on us or we would be waiting on Tamra for some new shirts. There is an angel shaped impression in the ground where we got stepped on by something the size of a brontosaurus.”

Clarice and Aria were giggling madly by the time Emily finished speaking.

“I would have paid good money to see that,” Clarice gasped, tears in her eyes as she laughed. “Can we time travel? I am so going to go and watch that if we can time travel.”

“Why didn’t you move out of the way?” Aria finally managed to ask, her eyes also shimmering with golden tears of mirth.

“We were…busy…in the moment,” Emily grumbled with a slight blush. “We figured they would just bugger off after they tore the cabin apart. We didn’t expect them to stomp on it.”

Clarice dissolved into another fit of giggles as she stared at her mother in amusement.

They all felt the blossoming power of a new angel. Aria and Clarice reigned in their humor as they all looked toward Lexi’s room excitedly.

“What did I miss?” Jason asked with a puzzled frown as he looked in the direction they were staring.

“There’s a new angel in the household,” Clarice purred, her eyes alight with curiosity. “I wonder what she’ll be.”

“Is it that police officer? Mary?” Jason asked, curious to see how different she looked.

“Yep,” Aria grinned eagerly. “Bring her down and let’s get her charged up, Lexi.”

There was a pause, then a blur as Lexi rushed into the room, followed a moment later by Mary and a gust of wind. She was a lot quicker than a human, but less than half the speed of what Jason usually saw the other angels move. He wondered if she was going slow on purpose, or if it was a power level thing due to being in a lower rank than the others.

Her police hat was gone, and her hair was free of the bun. Rich glossy brown hair tumbled down her shoulders in waves. Large violet eyes stared out of a sculpted face filled with euphoric joy.

As she came to a stop next to Lexi, Clarice walked over and pulled the two of them into a warm embrace. “Welcome to the club, Mary. We are ecstatic that you’ve joined us.”

As they hugged her, there was a small flash of light that surrounded Mary for a moment. Clarice continued to hold them both as a golden tear ran down her cheek. Clarice pressed her cheek to Lexi’s, where a silver tear met her gold tear and created a sphere of gold that surrounded them. As it faded, a pair of wings sprouted from Mary’s back. They were different than the wings of the other angels. They were a brilliant white and looked smooth and velvety.

Clarice finally stepped back, a grin on her face as she observed the two of them. “I’ll leave you to take care of the remaining upgrade.”

Lexi’s face turned bright red, and she stared back at Clarice with wide eyes as she tried to speak but nothing came out.

“It can wait until later,” Calypso announced, moving over to hug the newest angel fondly. “Welcome to the family, Mary.”

Aria joined her, wrapping her arms around the two of them. “We’re so happy you’ve joined us, Mary. Tamra will have a shirt you can use that will accomodate wings.”

“I can’t believe how good I feel!” Mary exclaimed in amazement. “Is this how good the rest of you feel all of the time?”

“It sure is,” Clarice laughed, winking at Calypso. “Sometimes we feel even better.”

Susan had been watching intently, her eyes studying Mary curiously. Jason watched her thoughtfully as he revisited his choice to wait on a family before ascending.

“Okay, now that we’re all here, let’s explain some of the information we have discovered with Mary, Jason, and Susan. It will probably influence your decision on when to become an angel rather heavily when you find out.”

“Way to psyche me up,” Jason commented dryly.

“You’ll see,” Clarice told him mysteriously.

Chapter 21

Jason shook his head in disbelieving wonder as Clarice brought him and Susan up to date on the latest information from…Lucifer! Jason still couldn’t believe the boogie man of the world religions was a real person.

“So, we’re just locked up in this mortality prison indefinitely as far as the other Seraphim are concerned?” Susan asked with a frown. She had taken the information a lot better than he had expected. Of course, Jason had been sharing a lot of what he learned with her back at MIT.

“Yep,” Clarice nodded grimly. “We don’t know how personally involved they are in the actions of the demons who torture humans, but there will be a reckoning if we find out there is any involvement at all.”

Jason had told Susan about Calypso’s early life of captivity in demon hands before Carcelonia had rescued her. Jason felt his own rage at the thought of harm coming to the beautiful woman who had healed him and so many other children.

“So, the real question is whether the two of you want to remain locked in mortality, knowing that it is actually a prison for political prisoners,” Clarice continued, watching them intently. “Do you two want to remain mortal still?”

Jason looked at Susan and could see the answer in her eyes. He felt conflicted as he stared into her beautiful eyes. He had always envisioned himself becoming a father someday and living the dream of the nuclear family. He realized how silly that seemed now that he knew they were actually in a prison.

“Jason,” Calypso began, her eyes full of understanding as she watched him fondly. “I should remind you that there are a lot of children who need parents. You don’t have to be a biological father to still be a parent. You could be an angel and a parent.”

Devon and Tamra looked troubled as they looked at each other pensively. Jason knew they were both very set on experiencing family life. At Calypso’s words, their eyes lit up with interest.

Jason let out a sudden laugh as she finished speaking, facepalming as he shook his head. “I don’t know why that had never occurred to me. Of course we could adopt some kids if we want kids.”

Susan laid her hand on top of his, her eyes full of affection. “Yes, and I expect we will,” she told him firmly. “You would make a wonderful father.”

Jason grinned back at her, then looked up at Clarice with determined eyes. “I guess we’re ready.”

Jason jumped as Clarice suddenly jumped into the air, thrusting a fist up high and shouting in a triumphant voice, “wahoo!”

“At least you got one last meal before you changed,” Aria noted with an exuberant grin. “It’s going to be so nice to not worry about someone trying to kill you again.”

“I’m really looking forward to that part,” Jason declared with a broad grin. Now that he had made the decision, he felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He felt a sudden eagerness to no longer be bound to the shackles of time. The thought of eternity spreading out in front of him almost took his breath away as it finally hit him that he was really going to be immortal.

Susan was staring back at him excitedly, clearly experiencing some of the same thoughts as him.

“What do you think?” Devon asked Tamra speculatively. “I hadn’t even thought of adopting. We can discuss it privately if you would like.”

“It’s the best of both worlds, isn’t it?” Tamra murmured with a slight smile as she gazed back at Devon with barely repressed excitement. “Calypso, you’re a genius. I don’t know why we didn’t think of this before.”

Devon’s nieces and sister stared at him in sudden hopeful anticipation, unconsciously holding their breath as they waited for his internal deliberation to reach a resolution. After almost a minute he finally nodded with a faint smile. “Let’s do it.”

There were three blurs as Aria, Clarice, and Emily rushed over and tried to embrace him. They bounced off of each other like bowling pins, sprawling on the ground and laughing sheepishly. Emily was the first one back up, leaning down to hug first Devon, and then Tamra from where the two humans sat in front of the table.

“It is going to be such a relief to no longer worry about someone killing you in a sudden skirmish,” Emily told Devon with tears in her eyes. She bent down and touched her cheek to his forehead and then did the same to Tamra.

Their foreheads began glowing for a moment as their faces metamorphized into younger versions of themselves. Tamra gasped as she stared at a much younger looking Devon, a slow smile spreading across her now youthful looking features.

“Not bad,” Tamra grinned at him mischievously. “For an old man.”

Devon laughed and shook his head wonderingly. “I haven’t felt this good in decades.”

“Oh, you think that’s good?” Clarice smirked, her eyes full of excitement as she observed them. “Just wait until you are angels.”

Calypso had moved over to Jason and Susan. She repeated the process that Emily had done with Devon and Tamra, pressing a tearstained cheek to the two students.

“Now say that you want to vanquish evil,” Clarice instructed them eagerly.

The four of them spoke the words and then waited as the tingling began to spread throughout their bodies. Jason shivered as he felt the energy matrix bind to his flesh and begin removing his organs. Searing but painless heat coursed through his body, purging all traces of mortality. When his brain was finally seared away and the light dimmed, he gaped at the sudden rush of intense positive energy flooding his system. He shared a wide-eyed look with Susan, then flushed as he saw just how much more beautiful she had become as an angel. She was exquisite, as if the template he had come to love throughout the last year had been refined and purified.

“Now we are one big happy angel family,” Clarice announced with a jubilant smile. She tackled Devon and Tamra, laughing with joy as she moved on to Jason and Susan.

“We feel this good all of the time?” Jason asked in disbelief.

“Now you know why I’m always so freaking cheerful and goofy,” Clarice told him with another delighted laugh. “These immortal bodies are constantly pumped full of love and positivity. Just imagine always feeling this and then having the positivity replaced with the poison that demons experience if you want an idea of how horrible things were for Arturiel. That’s why we want to redeem as many demons as possible.”

“That would be horrible,” Susan agreed with a shiver. “I can’t imagine losing this wonderful feeling now that I have it.”

“If I’m understanding things correctly, the positive energy we feel here in the mortal realm is significantly lower than what you will feel in the light realms,” Calypso informed them with a wondering look in her eyes. “The highest light realm is supposed to be so intense that only Seraphim and Cherubim can survive it. The other Seraphim won’t even leave the highest realm for fear of losing the powerful energy source there. According to Grodek and Lucifer, nothing can die on the highest light realm.”

“He also said we Seraphim existed alone in the universe before we created the angels and light realms, following directions from this god thing,” Clarice commented, her eyes full of curiosity. “We didn’t even understand what god is and spent most of our time studying it after we created the light realms. If we didn’t understand what god is when we were fully ascended Seraphim and capable of interacting with it, I feel like the odds of us comprehending god in our current limited state is pretty unlikely. Even so, I’m very very curious.”

“Are we sure this isn’t just a computer simulation and god is the helpful AI or something?” Jason asked with a speculative look at the other angels. “I mean, it sounds like the Seraphim consult it for information the same way I would consult one of our primitive AI’s. Before technology evolved here in the mortal realm, would the Seraphim even have any concept for what a computer simulation is?”

“Interesting idea,” Clarice frowned doubtfully. “However, Grodek made it sound like we had been around for possibly billions of years before we created the angels, and millions of years after that. It seems like the concept of a simulation would have come up in all of that time. Arturiel also talked about the light realms being extremely malleable, allowing them to create their own worlds from ideas. It sounds a lot like what we think of as simulations. I wonder if whatever this god thing is might be beyond our current level of comprehension. Remind me to ask Grodek if they had things like computers in the light realms next time we see him.”

“Considering the way we were able to hack into encrypted military communications with our minds, I think we might have had some pretty advanced technology that went into creating our angel bodies,” Aria pointed out, studying Jason and the other three new angels with a calculating gaze.

He squinted back at her and tilted his head curiously. “Can you tell what we are, now that we’re angels?” he inquired. “How far down the totem pole did I end up?”

Aria shook her head ruefully. “I was wondering how long it would take you to ask.”

“I’m surrounded by Seraphim and Cherubim,” Jason replied defensively. “It’s hard not to wonder if I’m just a regular angel or archangel.”

“You’re a Dominion, Jason,” Calypso told him reassuringly. “All of you are Dominions, except for Devon. He’s a Cherubim.”

Jason almost let out a relieved sigh. He knew it shouldn’t matter, but he felt like he would be practically useless in the battle ahead of them if his power was limited to the third triad of angels.

“How can you tell?” Aria asked Calypso curiously.

“It’s part of their energy signature,” Calypso explained, pointing at Jason. “You can see the bandwidth in his meridians is less than what’s in Devon or Lexi. It’s more than the amount of power flowing through their meridians, however. If you look closely at their nodes, you will see a specific rune imprinted on it. I’m not sure how I know how to identify them, but his indicates a Dominion of the first order. Devon’s rune is a Cherub of the second order and Lexi’s is a Cherub of the first order.”

“So, they’re basically one step below Cherubim,” Emily commented, her eyes fascinated. “What am I?”

“Do you even have to ask, Emily?” Calypso smiled, staring into her golden eyes. “You and Eric are both Cherubim of the first order.”

“Now that you can identify rank, can you confirm that we are really Seraphim?” Clarice asked Calypso intently.

“Yes,” Calypso nodded, a small secretive smile on her beautiful face. “I have been able to recognize it for some time now.”

“Wait, what?” Clarice and Aria squawked at the same time, staring at her in surprise.

“How long have you known?” Clarice demanded, her golden eyes accusatory.

Calypso stared up at the ceiling like she was thinking. “Since we learned I was a Seraph, I think.”

Clarice looked outraged for several seconds before suddenly bursting out with laughter. “I’m glad I’m having a positive influence on you after all, Calypso.”

Aria shook her head with a wry smile as she observed Calypso fondly. “Why didn’t you want to tell us?”

“I wasn’t sure, at first,” Calypso explained, eyeing Clarice with a playful smile. “When Aria was able to obtain a divine instrument, it confirmed my guess. I honestly wanted to see how long it took for the two of you to figure it out. I could tell that your mom had it figured out as soon as she started questioning Arturiel about it. I think that perhaps Clarice is rubbing off on me a little bit. Lucifer ruined it for me by telling you.”

“You know, I thought you looked a little too unsurprised when Lucifer told us,” Aria declared with a snort of laughter. “I’m glad we could provide you with some entertainment.” Aria broke off, staring at Clarice with an expression of bewilderment. “Why in the world do you find that freaking hot?”

Calypso shifted awkwardly as everyone looked between her and Clarice curiously.

“She’s my innocent little angel being naughty,” Clarice shrugged with a coy smile. “It is freaking hot.”

Calypso’s blush swept up to the roots of her hair as Clarice’s grin widened and became suggestive. Aria and Lexi’s faces flushed bright red as well.

“You are a bad angel,” Aria accused Clarice a trifle breathlessly.

“Does anyone know what’s going on?” Jason asked in confusion, looking at Susan’s blank expression and finding no help.

“I see you already forgot their emotions are linked,” Emily noted dryly, shaking her head at Clarice, her eyes filled with amusement. “That bond is going to get pretty interesting with Clarice tied to your souls.”

Jason’s eyes lit of up with understanding as he stared at the trio of blushing angels. He had forgotten about the emotional bond the four angels shared. The bond was evidently being exploited by Clarice in a way that was strongly affecting the other three angels.

Susan caught his eye and raised a questioning eyebrow. He blushed furiously and muttered a quiet “later.”

Mary was watching Lexi curiously as she observed her friend’s bright red face. Before she could ask any questions, a portal opened, and Eric came through with Arturiel.

The two new arrivals stared around in surprise as the portal closed. Eric’s eyes went wide when he saw Devon and Tamra looking no older than twenty. He grinned broadly and quickly pulled Devon into a warm embrace.

“Devon, I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you transformed,” Eric declared happily. “I was afraid I was going to be the only male angel for the next twenty years.”

“Lucifer is male,” Clarice pointed out dryly.

“Okay, the only male angel in our group,” Eric corrected with a roll of his eyes.

“He is in our group now,” Clarice also pointed out.

“Okay...the only male who is related to you within two generations,” Eric sighed in exasperation. “Happy?”

“You have no idea just how happy I am,” Clarice purred, winking at Calypso.

“Don’t start that again,” Emily warned her daughter sternly. “If they turn any redder, they are going to burn the place down.”

“Oh, hello Jason,” Eric greeted him with an enthusiastic smile. “I see you’ve finally joined the club. Who’s this beautiful young lady?”

“Hi, Eric,” Jason nodded, feeling that ridiculous grin appear on his face again as he looked down at Susan. “This is Susan. She’s my...my...”

“She’s your girlfriend, you ninny,” Clarice exclaimed with a broad grin. “Now say it!”

Jason’s blushed furiously, darting a look at Susan’s amused eyes as he floundered. “Yeah, she’s my girlfriend.”

“Woot!” Clarice cheered, pumping her fist into the air triumphantly. “Jason’s got a girlfriend!”

“It’s nice to meet you Susan,” Eric grinned down at her, his eyes twinkling with amusement. “Don’t mind Clarice. She has a mental condition that prevents her from taking anything seriously.”

“It’s called being ridiculously awesome,” Clarice declared airily. “You should try it sometime, old man.”

“And she’s a Seraph,” Arturiel murmured in a bemused tone. “I feel like reality is about to take the scenic route.”

“We should probably get everyone ascended as much as we can,” Aria suggested, eyeing the new angels with a calculating gaze. “I think most of them will be able to take care of their growth on their own after we get them started.”

Clarice was stepping toward Jason and Susan with a predatory look in her eyes when Emily grabbed her wings and pulled her back.

“We’ll handle this, Tweedle Dum,” Emily announced firmly. Emily stepped forward and pulled Susan into a warm embrace. “You too, Jason. I won’t bite.”

Jason laughed nervously and tentatively put his arms around Susan and Emily. As he did so, he felt the flow of positivity from the other two suddenly begin exchanging energy with his own meridians. It was a surprisingly intimate experience, making him glad that Emily had taken Clarice’s place. He wasn’t sure he could have kept his composure with her leering at him during such a personal experience. He was aware of Aria joining Devon and Tamra, while Clarice joined Mary and Lexi.

After almost five minutes of their group embrace, power suddenly flooded his meridians, and he felt an odd sensation on his back.

“This next part requires us to mix our tears together,” Emily instructed them softly. “Do either of you think you can work up a tear?”

Jason frowned, unable to think of anything that could make him feel sadness while being flooded with intense loving energy.

“I can,” Susan whispered, her eyes shining with quicksilver tears.

“Good,” Emily smiled, a quicksilver tear of her own running down her cheek. She pressed her cheek to Susan’s cheek and the tears touched. A golden glowing sphere sprang up around them and energy lanced into his meridians. He gasped at the sheer amount of power flooding his meridians. It quickly filled his soul to capacity until he felt the nodes of his meridians warp and evolve. There was a ripping sound as wings erupted out of their backs, tearing through the back of their shirts.

“Oh shit,” Emily sighed in exasperation. “I totally forgot to give you one of the shirts Tamra made me to accommodate wings.”

She stuck her hand into a hole in the air and pulled a shirt out, handing it to Susan. “We’re pretty close to the same size, so this should be a pretty close fit. Follow me and I’ll show you how to put it on around the wings.”

Another portal opened into one of the bedrooms and Emily led a blushing but ecstatic Susan into the room.

Jason flexed the wings he could feel attached to his back like a second set of arms. They felt completely natural. He was dying to try flying on his own with his...girlfriend. He grinned as he thought the word. He actually had a girlfriend. He still couldn’t believe his luck.

Jason looked around the room and noticed that Tamra had learned from their experience, having pulled the back of her shirt over her head before her wings appeared.

Jason suddenly felt a wave of dizziness wash over him. The other angels were staggering in confusion as a sense of vertigo seemed to ripple through the entire group.

“It’s a rewrite,” he heard Calypso gasped. “Aria, Clarice, don’t believe any-“

Epilogue

Aria woke up and looked around her room in surprise. How is my room still here when our apartment blew up?

She jumped out of bed and quickly went toward Clarice’s room. Even as she walked, the memories tried to fade into the back of her mind. She gritted her teeth and fought to keep them fresh.

“Clarice, are you there?” she pushed into her sister’s room and the memory of her sister’s death a week ago suddenly washed over her like a tsunami. She fell to the ground as an overpowering wave of grief hit her. She remembered the doctors telling her that she was having a nervous breakdown and experiencing delusions as her mind looked for a way to survive without her sister. She felt tears running down her cheeks and wiped them away, noticing that they were just regular tears. She let out a wail of soul crushing grief as she saw a future devoid of her sister’s light stretching in front of her like an endless road into the night. There would be no more jokes, no more emotional support when the horrors of life overwhelmed her. She sunk further into despair as she wept for all of the things she would never do with her sister now. She lay on her sister’s floor crying for hours as time melted away like the last rays of a dying sun. She heard the sound of the front door open and footsteps moving throughout the house.

“Aria, are you here?” her mother’s voice called out, concern thick in her voice.

Her mother finally found her on Clarice’s floor and knelt down, wrapping her in comforting arms.

She didn’t say anything. She knew there were no words that could help the kind of pain tormenting Aria’s soul. She just knelt with Aria in her arms for several hours. Aria eventually got up and stared at her mother with eyes filled with pain.

“Was it all fake?” Aria asked, her voice breaking as she spoke. “Calypso, the angels, all of it?”

Her mother watched her compassionately, smiling at her sadly through her own tears. “I’m so sorry, Aria.”

THE END OF BOOK 1