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 took 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.”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“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 fondly.

“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 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 ruefully, 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 another rueful glance at Clarice, who was giggling at Jason’s reaction. “Those three are not shapeshifters though.”

“Calypso turned us into angels,” Aria told him bluntly. “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.”

“Demons have infiltrated every influential institution and are controlling most of the activities in the world,” Aria told him grimly. “They are 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 ten 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. 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?”