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 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 jumped 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 ruefully, 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 your 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.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“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 anxiously. “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 came 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 it’s 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.

“You do what?” Lexi asked, her eyes perplexed.

“I was talking to Aria,” she told Lexi 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 your 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 argued 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 angel’s 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.