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 a rueful smile. “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.

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“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 no longer looked like the size of an anime character. 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 demo -ns 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 if 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 of 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. It would 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 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.”