“It feels like this puzzle is starting to finally form a coherent picture,” Clarice remarked as she sat hovering cross legged in the air in the veranda.

  Lucifer and Grodek had left on their own missions. Aria was standing at the edge of the veranda looking down into the valley. Lexi was imitating Clarice’s pose in the air next to her while Calypso stood next to Aria. Devon was visiting with Tamra at her house again while their parents were vacationing in the cabin Clarice had teleported to the world beneath the sun’s shell.

  “It is eerily similar to what Emily and Devon were contemplating while you two were instrument shopping the other day,” Calypso told them musingly. “I wonder how much of the information they theorized about came from their soul memory.”

  “It’s kind of funny when you think about it,” Clarice noted with a faint smile. “If we really are all Seraphim, all of the answers to everything we’ve been searching for are already buried somewhere in our soul memory. We just don’t have access to it yet because we haven’t finished ascending. Maybe that’s what this intuition is that Calypso is pulling from.”

  “I still can’t believe we are Seraphim,” Aria commented disbelievingly. “We had this entire character class we had convinced ourselves we belonged to that was limiting our growth this whole time.”

  “I can’t believe I’m in the presence of not one, but three Seraphim,” Arturiel breathed, shaking her head in wonder. “You are literally the ones who created me and all of the other angels. There was so much that I thought I understood that was wrong.”

  Aria suddenly laughed as she stared out over the verdant green valley below them.

  “What are you laughing at, Tweedle Dee?” Clarice asked, raising an amused eyebrow.

  “You were right about Calypso from the start, Clarice,” Aria declared, her voice filled with mirth. “She was and amnesiac angel. Twice. First, it was due to Carcelonia wiping her memory, and second, it was due to being stuck in the mortal realm. She won’t have her memories back until she fully ascends, like the rest of us.”

  Calypso shared a look with Clarice and they both began laughing as well.

  “Sometimes the first observation is the correct one,” Clarice observed with an amused smile.

  “Do you realize we’ve been going nonstop for a week now?” Aria commented thoughtfully. “It really shows just how different an immortal body is when I can feel just as energized and relaxed as I would have been after a week of sleep when we were mortal.”

  “It has been a busy week, hasn’t it?” Clarice agreed wryly, shaking her head as she thought about how far they had come in such a short time. “We really floundered a lot in the beginning, trying to figure out what angels were. Grodek didn’t help with some of his misleading comments. We were afraid that we would be raising humans to angels who would be overpowered, but it all just depends on who they were before they were consigned to this mortality prison. I suppose the fact that Lexi, Mom, and Dad are Cherubim contributed to that mistaken belief.”

  “According to Lucifer, one third of all angels have experienced mortality,” Aria frowned, glancing at Arturiel. “Plus, any angels who were sent down to police the mortal realm and were then transformed into demons. I wonder what the total number of angels is now that have the capacity for empathy and compassion?”

  “Hmmm…” Clarice’s eyes suddenly widened as a thought occurred to her. “Oh wow.”

  “What?” Lexi asked intently, unconsciously leaning closer to her.

  “It just hit me that this really is a prison,” Clarice announced, her eyes wide as she stared at Lexi in dawning realization. “Should we be raising every human we come across to an angel? It doesn’t actually make sense to leave them as mortals when they are literally trapped here until we help them ascend. They are just like us and have been trapped here in an endless cycle of incarnations when they should be freed from this prison realm.”

  “What about the angels that were sent here due to their behavior?” Aria asked, her voice troubled. “As well as all of the families still raising children?”

  “I think it would make more sense to make an exit to this realm upon death,” Calypso suggested contemplatively. “This world will be uninhabitable for anyone who wishes to stay and raise their families if we free the rest of the humans. Society has become completely dependent on the centralized supply chain for food and goods necessary for survival here.”

  “I’m not so sure,” Clarice disagreed with a shake of her head. “Calypso, you ascended when you were just a child, so we know that children could also be raised. They would be looking at a few decades to grow up, but they wouldn’t need to worry about any of the normal human necessities for survival. There would be enough angels who cared about their loved ones that they would stay and help anyone who chose to finish out their mortality in a world that was more primitive. All of the industrial waste would be a simple matter for us to vaporize from existence, so they wouldn’t have to worry about an industrial meltdown poisoning the water and land when the workforce vanished. Can we really just leave all of these people in this prison while we walk free?”

  “We need more information on how angels are consigned to mortality,” Aria said slowly. “If less than half of all angels have experienced mortality, we still need to see to it that the remaining angels in the light realm experience it too, whether they want to or not. What is the mechanism in place that is injecting our souls into human bodies? When does it happen?”

  “Oh no, this sounds like a pro-life argument waiting to happen,” Clarice sighed in a mock resignation. “But yes, I see your point. Something is capturing angel souls and forcing them into mortal bodies. We will need to have control over whatever mechanism is being used to make immortals into mortals.”

  “Won’t it take a crazy amount of time for us to free all of the people who are trapped here?” Lexi asked doubtfully.

  “Think pyramid scheme,” Clarice responded with a wry grin. “Every angel we help ascend is one more angel to help continue freeing other mortals from this prison. It will be exponential and won’t take more than a few weeks at most.”

  “What about people like Uncle Devon who want to remain and have children?” Aria asked dubiously. “Do we just tell them too bad, and they’ll thank us later?”

  “No, remember, there are still plenty of angels who need to experience mortality,” Clarice reminded her with a grin. “All of the assholes that sent us here in the first place.”

  “We should talk to Grodek and Lucifer first,” Aria decided firmly. “They’ll probably have more insight into how this soul trap works and what freeing everyone would look like.”

  “But in the meantime,” Clarice said with an eager smile. “I say we stop being particular about who we help ascend. People like Julia and the others are open game now.”

  “I have a feeling that we could transform everyone back using the divine instruments, should we need to,” Calypso pointed out, her eyes growing introspective. “There’s a lot we will be able to do with the divine instruments that will require careful thought. We’ve lived in this mortal realm for who knows how many iterations over the last several thousand years. Perhaps there are changes that should be made to how things operate that will still offer people the growth they need without the horrors this world has inflicted on so many of us.”

  Aria wrapped an arm around Calypso protectively, sympathy filling their bond. Calypso had certainly learned first-hand the horrors this world could subject a person to, at an age no person should ever have to experience it. Clarice felt a sense of rage burn hotly in her core as she thought of the Seraphim responsible for their incarceration and Calypso’s subsequent torture. How much had she suffered at their direction? Could they have been involved in her ordeal at a more personal level in an attempt to break her?

  “Are you okay?” Lexi asked anxiously, her large golden eyes filled with concern.

  Aria and Calypso had turned to stare at her in concern as well, the spiritual bond that connected them making her emotions an extension of their own.

  “If I find even a hint that the other Seraphim had a role in your ordeal, there will be tales of the horror they will suffer that will echo into the halls of eternity,” Clarice grated, her eyes filled with dreadful promise.

  She felt fiery rage ignite from Lexi and Aria at her words.

  “Yes, there will be,” Aria agreed, her face as cold as an arctic gale.

  Lexi nodded fiercely, her lips tight with rage.

  They all felt the tripwire alarm in the nodes that connected them to Jason as danger flared in his mind. Clarice immediately teleported to his location, her mind speeding up as time slowed down.

  Jason was plunging over the edge of an eight story building, nearly halfway to the ground. She dove down and caught him twenty feet above the ground, dropping down quickly to reduce the impact as she pulled him close.

  “You sure do get into trouble a lot,” she commented dryly. “What happened?”

  Aria and Lexi were already bursting through a broken window on the top story, their minds sharp with focus.

  Jason’s eyes were bugging out as they slowly landed on the ground and she set him down. “I so thought I was a goner that time.”

  “We told you that we would keep you safe,” Clarice reminded him with an amused twinkle in her eyes. ‘Where’s the trust?”

  “Somewhere up there still,” Jason panted, gesturing toward the top of the eight story building. “How the hell did you know I was in trouble?”

  “Think of all of the people we watch over as belonging to a psychic web,” Clarice explained, looking up to see Lexi dragging a man out of the window with her as she dropped down toward them. “We can feel when you have a spike of adrenaline or intense fear.”

  “So, you’re becoming omnipresent?” Jason asked with a laugh that wasn’t quite hysterical.

  There were dozens of students gawking at the angels that had suddenly appeared in their midst. Phones were coming out as they raced each other to post the latest angel video to social media.

  Lexi landed next to them, her hand gripping the back of a large man’s neck. She was squeezing hard enough that if he tried to escape it would result in a broken neck. Clarice couldn’t smell the stench of demon on him, which meant he was human.

  “Is this the guy that pushed you?” Clarice asked, studying the man curiously. He was only a few inches taller than her, but very muscular. He had short hair and a face only a mother could love. He looked about thirty years old and had several scars on his cheeks. His eyes were filled with loathing as he stared at her, pinned in place by Lexi’s grip.

  “I have no idea,” Jason admitted, slowly calming down as his breathing slowed down. His hands were trembling from the adrenaline burnout. “I didn’t see anything. I was just walking down the hall and someone shoved me through the window.”

  “Well, Thomas, what do you have to say for yourself?” Clarice asked the man with a raised eyebrow. “Is there a reason you decided to defenestrate Jason?”

  “I’m still intact,” Jason objected indignantly.

  “What do you think defenestrate means, Jason?” Clarice asked, her lips twitching.

  Jason stared at her, his cheeks coloring. “Oh. It means something else, doesn’t it?”

  “What did you think it meant?” Clarice asked, her lips turning up at the corners.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Jason mumbled, brushing his hand through his hair awkwardly.

  “You must have thought it meant something,” Clarice pushed, her grin widening.

  “Leave him alone,” Aria told her reproachfully as she suddenly appeared next to them. “What’s the story with Thomas here?”

  “We hadn’t gotten that far yet,” Clarice winked at Jason. “We were exploring the English vocabulary.”

  “So, he’s a member of Opus Dei?” Aria noted, clearly reading his thoughts. “I guess it was just a matter of time before the world religions started sniping at us. I wonder if he’s here as a result of humans or demons.”

  “Probably demons,” Clarice decided with a shrug. “They know they can’t get close to Jason without us detecting their stench, so they probably decided to send a human.”

  “You can tell if demons are near me based on their stench?” Jason asked dubiously. “Wouldn’t I be the one smelling them? Or are you able to smell through my nose?”

  “It’s a metaphorical stink,” Clarice explained patiently. “Their souls are rotten. While you might not be able to detect one with your nose, your spirit will certainly recognize one and alert us.”

  “I thought you were studying cyber security,” Aria told Jason with a frown. “Why are you in building 36?”

  “Um, a friend invited me to come see one of the labs she works in,” Jason answered, wisely avoiding Clarice’s gaze and missing the sudden leer.

  “Oh, is it a girl friend, Jason?” Clarice asked archly, looking around for said girl in the growing crowd of students and faculty that were gathering around them.

  The students close enough to hear their conversation were staring at Clarice nonplussed, clearly not expecting this kind of conversation from an angel.

  “Yes, she’s a girl,” Jason admitted defensively. “And yes, she’s a friend.”

  Clarice started to rise up into the air to look for said girl…friend, but Aria grabbed her arm and pulled her back down.

  “Focus, Clarice,” Aria said crisply. “What are we going to do with Thomas? If we let him go, they’ll probably just kill him. Should we just turn him into an angel?”

  Thomas had remained stoically silent for the entire exchange, glaring at them with hate filled eyes. As soon as Aria suggested turning him into an angel he began thrashing wildly, almost breaking his own neck as he struggled to escape Lexi’s grip.

  “Damn fundamentalists,” Clarice growled in exasperation, preparing to smack him on the neck to knock him out, but Calypso rested her hand on Clarice’s arm to restrain her.

  “Thomas, we won’t turn you into an angel if you don’t want to be an angel,” Calypso told the flailing man gently. “You’re free to go as far as we are concerned. However, I’m guessing the local law enforcement will not be as lenient.”

  Even as she finished speaking, several campus police officers arrived with their tazers out. They came to a halt after pushing their way through the large crowd of students and faculty, staring at the angels in shock.

  “Release the man and get down on the ground with your hands on your head,” the first officer, a woman with striking hazel eyes and rich brown hair demanded in a commanding voice. Most of her hair was in a bun underneath a police cap. She looked young, probably no older than nineteen. The two men accompanying her were not nearly as bold, lowering their tazers when they realized they were pointing at angels.

  “What’s it to be?” Clarice asked Thomas conversationally. “Do you want to leave in their custody, or ours?”

  Thomas spat at her, his eyes full of venom. Clarice didn’t bother dodging. She vaporized the spit out of the air with a short blast from her eyes.

  The officer took that as her cue and fired her tazer at Clarice. Clarice’s hand blurred as she grabbed the prongs out of the air with her hand, holding the wires between her fingers. She shook violently for several seconds before stopping and grinning at the officer.

  “Sorry, I couldn’t resist,” Clarice apologized, her eyes full of mirth. “Did you really think a tazer was going to do anything? Honest question.”

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  The woman narrowed her eyes and dropped the tazer, replacing it with her handgun.

  “Mary, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” one of the other officers told her nervously. “You’re going to get yourself vaporized.”

  “Grow a pair,” she snarled at him, flipping the safety off and aiming it at Clarice. She glared, her eyes full of anger. “Don’t make me ask again. Get down on the ground with your hands behind your head.”

  “I am so tempted to actually do it, just to see where this would take us, Mary” Clarice told the woman with a slow, sensuous wink. “You could do the whole sexy woman in a uniform act, then we could move on to a dominatrix act with those cuffs when things heat up.”

  “I’m not related to her,” Aria told the officer as she facepalmed. “Seriously, we just happened to bump into each other a few minutes ago.”

  Lexi was struggling not to laugh as she continued holding Thomas up by the back of the neck, her back to the officers. Calypso looked like she was just along for the popcorn as she watched Clarice with a small smile.

  The officer licked her lips as she put more pressure on the trigger. Clarice could tell by the look in her eyes that she knew it wouldn’t do any good. She clearly had a chip on her shoulders with angels and wanted to settle some kind of score.

  “You can shoot,” Clarice told her encouragingly. “I’m just going to vaporize the bullets out of the air, so you might as well get it out of your system, whatever it is.”

  This isn’t right, Mary thought as doubts began growing in her mind. They’re not acting anything like I thought they would. If they really do serve that bastard of a god, they aren’t acting like the angles in stories. But if angels really exist, why couldn’t they have saved Alexis?

  “We don’t serve a god,” Clarice told her gently. “Your Alexis isn’t really gone.”

  That was the wrong thing to say, Clarice reflected as she vaporized bullet after bullet while Marry screamed and squeezed the trigger over and over. When she finished emptying her clip, she launched herself at Clarice with a cry of rage.

  Where were they when Alexis was sold off like cattle? her thoughts raged as she hammered futilely on Clarice’s shoulders and chest, even kicking her ankles. Clarice just stood there and let her unleash her rage. How can they strut around like gods while letting predators steal children all over the world? They weren’t there for her when she needed them most!

  Clarice saw the image of the girl Mary was thinking of, a fourteen year old Lexi with eyes still full of life. Aria and Calypso had clearly been listening to her thoughts as well. They shared a stunned look with each other, then looked at Lexi.

  “What’s going on?” Lexi asked in sudden concern as she felt their shock.

  At the sound of Lexi’s voice, Mary suddenly froze, turning to stare at Lexi with a mixture of disbelief and hope.

  “Alexis?” Mary whispered disbelievingly.

  Aria walked over and took charge of Thomas. “I think you have an overdue reunion,” Aria told Lexi gently.

  Lexi relinquished Thomas to Aria and turned to stare in puzzlement at Mary. “Mary? Is that you?”

  Mary’s eyes filled with tears as she stared at Lexi in amazement. “Is it really you?”

  Lexi’s eyes were wide with shock as she stared at Mary. She blurred over to Mary, pulling her into a tight embrace, squeezing her eyes shut as quicksilver tears ran down her cheeks. Mary gasped as the power of Lexi’s love hit her like a wrecking ball. Her knees lost their strength as intense love washed through her system. A moment later, her neck began glowing as one of Lexi’s tears landed on it.

  “Looks like we’re going to have one more angel,” Clarice commented with a wry smile at Calypso and Aria.

  “What happened,” Mary finally asked Lexi, her face suffused with joy. “How are you an angel?”

  “Those three saved me,” Lexi nodded at Clarice and the other two angels, her expression filled with love. “They stormed the mansion and vaporized the bastards holding us captive. They gave me the option to become an angel. We’ve been fighting demons and rescuing children ever since.”

  You could have heard a pin drop in the crowd around them as the drama unfolded. Clarice felt a wild urge to shout BOO! to see what would happen.

  “Come back with us,” Lexi told Mary, her voice filled with excitement. “I’ll tell you all about it. Some of the things I’ve learned are so crazy that it’s seriously going to blow your mind.”

  Mary looked at Clarice, her expression becoming apologetic. “I’m sorry for attacking you. You saved my best friend. I’ll never be able to repay you.”

  “Bring those cuffs along, and we’ll see,” Clarice suggested with a waggle of her eyebrows.

  She dodged as Aria dropped Thomas and tried to tackle her, laughing as she teleported back to the cabin.

  A moment later a gateway appeared, and Calypso came through, followed by Jason, Lexi and Mary. Clarice frowned when she didn’t see Aria. She reacted too late when Aria appeared above her, tackling her to the ground and giving her a knuckle noogie. “You are a bad angel.”

  The gateway closed, with several phones videoing Aria wrapped around Clarice giving her a knuckle noogie from hell as they disappeared from view.

  XXXXX

  Scott shook himself as the angels vanished. The man they had been restraining by the neck took off running as soon Aria tried to tackle Clarice. The police officers had been too stunned as one of their own voluntarily went through the portal with the angels. The police officer, this Mary, even seemed to know one of angels.

  “Man, what the hell just happened?” his dorm mate, Chet, asked in astonishment, pressing stop on his phone’s video app. “I don’t even know where to start with how messed up that was.”

  “Did anybody get the whole thing on video?” Scott asked the crowd curiously.

  A Japanese student raised his phone up in acknowledgment. “I was filming the campus to make a draft for our virtual tour project when that Jason guy came flying out the window,” the man told them, his eyes full of excitement. “That super hawt angel just popped out of thin air and caught him while he was falling.”

  “Which super hot angel?” Scott asked sarcastically. “I didn’t see any of them that weren’t super hot.”

  “The flirty one,” the man grinned. “If that’s what heaven’s like, I swear to be good from now on.”

  “Did I hear them correctly when they said they don’t serve a god?” a guy with a periodic table shirt asked with an eager gleam in his eyes. The shirt had the words ‘Can I lick it?’ written above the periodic table.

  “Yeah, I’ve got it on video,” a woman confirmed, her face flushed with excitement. “I can’t believe we just saw freaking angels. Calypso was here too!”

  “Did they offer to turn the guy that threw Jason out the window into an angel?” one of the women in the crowd asked, her eyes puzzled. “Why would they want a murderer as an angel?”

  “Where’s Jason?” a pretty blonde woman with terrified blue eyes demanded as she ran out of the building and searched the area below the window where he had been pushed out. “Is he alive?”

  “Freaking angels saved him,” Chet told her reassuringly. “They just popped into the air next to him while he was falling and saved him.”

  The young woman relaxed slightly, though her eyes were still tight with anxiety. “Where is he? Did he get hurt?”

  “He went through a portal with the angels-“ Chet broke off as a portal opened again.

  Clarice marched over to the young woman with a mischievous grin on her face. “Hello, Susan. Can you follow me please? Jason’s freaking out about leaving you to freak out.”

  Susan’s mouth dropped open as she stared at Clarice in shock, then at the portal behind the angel.

  “It’s totally cool, you only end up with your legs on backward about half of the time when you go through a portal,” Clarice assured Susan with a playful smile.

  “Jason’s with you?” Susan asked hesitantly, studying Clarice’s beautiful features nervously.

  “Yep, my mom’s getting some food for him as we speak,” Clarice told her with a chuckle. “It’s a rough life for a chef in a house full of angels that don’t require food.”

  “Hey Clarice, are you single?” a voice called out from further back in the crowd, clearly feeling brave from where they were hidden by the many bodies around them.

  Clarice blinked in surprise, looking toward where the voice had called out to her. She narrowed her eyes for a moment before speaking. “No Derek, I’m with Calypso. Sorry.”

  Scott watched the man named Derek blanch as he heard his name on her lips.

  At Clarice’s answer there was a sudden ripple in the crowd as people began talking among each other excitedly.

  “I thought god didn’t like gays?” a guy toward the back of the crowd called out derisively.

  “God doesn’t love or hate,” Clarice replied dryly. “God just is. Don’t take any of that religious mumbo jumbo seriously. You’ll all understand soon enough.” Clarice turned back to Susan. “Shall we?”

  “Is heaven real?” someone called out to her as they were moving back to the portal.

  Clarice paused, a mischievous smile appearing on her exquisite face. “Yes, Jeremy, the sky is real.”

  The angel finished entering the portal with Susan and it closed behind them silently.

  Scott snorted with amusement. “The sky is real.”

  Chet nudged him, leaning a little closer as he spoke. “Did you hear that girl, Lexi, say that the other angels had saved her from a mansion somewhere where she was being held captive?”

  Scott nodded, his eyes hardening. It sounded like the angels had taken care of that particular vermin.

  “They seem to be able to turn anyone they want into angels,” Chet said quietly. “She also said we would all understand soon enough. Do you think they plan on turning everyone into angels?”

  Scott blinked, looking at Chet curiously. “Why would they turn everyone into angels?”

  “Maybe it’s like the Borg, and they are just going to assimilate everyone,” Chet muttered with a shrug. “I don’t know where the thought even came from.”

  A few of the people near them had overheard Chet and were nodding thoughtfully. Scott smiled wryly as he spoke. “I’m so ready to be a Borg.”

  XXXXX

  Jason was sitting at a table with Devon and Tamra. One of the perks for Tamra in having their mother for a future sister-in-law was that her cooking days were over. Their mother didn’t sleep and had super speed. Tamra hadn’t taken very long to give in when their mother had insisted she come over to the veranda for all of her daily meals. While their mother could no longer eat the food that she cooked, her sense of smell was so enhanced that she had actually improved her cooking skills after becoming an angel.

  Jason sniffed the air as his stomach rumbled with anticipation. “That smells so freaking good.”

  “I think I might never leave mortality if it means I could always have Emily’s cooking,” Devon commented with sigh. “While it’s been great having the nieces around over the last week, the honest part of me will admit that Emily’s cooking is the true highlight of this new arrangement.”

  “You’re such a glutton,” Aria told him fondly. “I have to point that out since it is one of the seven deadly sins and I’m an angel.”

  Jason jumped up as he heard Susan’s voice from down in the front yard. He hurried over to the edge of the veranda to look down to where Clarice was exiting a portal with Susan. His friend who was a girl was staring at the cabin in appreciation as they crossed the small bridge where the creek ran through the front yard. She noticed him up on the veranda near the waterfall and he waved with a silly grin on his face. She smiled, her blue eyes filled with relief as she stared back at him.

  “We have a lot to talk with you about, Susan,” he heard Clarice tell her as they moved into the house below them.

  Jason went back to the entrance of the veranda and met Susan as Clarice brought her up. She had a wide mouth that smiled in a way that always made his knees week. She had always been self-conscious about it, even though Jason felt it was one of her most striking features.

  “…she’s been dying to make food for more people than my uncle and Tamra, so you two are a…godsend…to her,” Clarice was saying as they came up the stairs.

  Jason felt the silly grin back on his face as she smiled back at him. As soon as she reached him she pulled him into a tight hug, a small sob escaping as she held onto him.

  “I thought you were gone,” she told him thickly, trying to control her voice. “I’m so glad I’ll get another chance to do this right.”

  Jason blinked in confusion at her words. “Do what right?”

  She pulled back from him, her beautiful tear filled eyes studying his face. She took a deep, nervous breath, then pushed her lips to his.

  He was so shocked that he just stood there at first. He felt a small shove from Clarice, and he finally snapped out of his shock and kissed her back, his heart hammering in his chest. He had never dared to try and move things past hugs before, feeling too shy and self-conscious.

  She pulled back and stared into his eyes intently. “Do that right.”

  “Oh,” his silly grin was back, making her laugh as she pulled him into another hug.

  “Almost losing you made me realize all of the things I would have missed out on for being too chicken to get out of the friend zone,” Susan told him with another heart stopping smile.

  “I see our plus one is here,” Emily noted as she brought two large platters of food through the door. “Hello, Susan, I’m Emily. I’m Aria and Clarice’s mother. It’s wonderful to meet you.”

  Susan did a double take as she started at the youthful woman claiming to be Aria and Clarice’s mother. A glance at her wings made it clear she was an angel. “Hello, Emily, it’s wonderful to meet you too. I can’t thank you and your daughters enough for saving Jason.”

  “They’re pretty good at saving the day,” Emily declared with a fond smile at her daughters as she set the food down on one of the tables. “Come have a seat and relax. I’ll get you some tea.”

  “Thank you, Emily,” Susan smiled gratefully as she sat down next to him.

  “Is Mary going to be eating?” Emily inquired as she started a kettle heating. “Or is she going to leave mortality behind before her next meal?”

  The angels all seemed to be listening to something Jason couldn’t hear before Emily nodded with a small smile. “I don’t blame her. We’ll be going over a lot of what we’ve learned with Jason and Susan, so bring her up when she’s ready.”

  “Is that your super hearing at work?” Jason asked curiously.

  “Yes, it is,” Emily replied with a chuckle. “Just remember, there’s nowhere within a mile of the house where you aren’t going to be heard by the rest of us, even if you’re whispering.”

  “Jason mentioned you have super senses,” Susan commented, her eyes fascinated. “Is that how you knew he was in trouble?”

  “That was more of a psychic link,” Calypso answered from where she sat on a tall barstool, the tips of her wings just touching the floor. “Now that I have met you, Susan, I have your spirit’s resonance cataloged in my memory. We’re all connected in a web of energy in the spiritual realm, so if I feel a sense of fear or danger disturb the threads connecting you to us, we’ll be there before you know it.”

  “I’m assuming you have a much greater capacity for attention than humans,” Susan said with a half-smile. “I can’t imagine keeping track of all of the threads you must be watching.”

  “Being an angel definitely upgrades the mind,” Aria agreed with a nod.

  “So, tell me about the two of you?” Emily said as she poured the tea for Susan, her motherly tone at odds with her youthful features. “How long have you known each other? How did you meet?”

  Jason chuckled as she bustled about them, her maternal manner putting them at their ease. “I spilled my coffee all over her when I was going into the cafeteria during my first week at MIT. I was looking the other way when I went around a corner and ran right into her.”

  “He totally ruined my shirt,” Susan complained, her eyes playful. “He was so flustered and embarrassed that I actually felt sorry for him. He insisted on buying me a new shirt and tried to give me the money for it right then and there. I told him he would have to come and help me pick it out.”

  “I can already imagine how red his face must have been,” Clarice commented with a laugh. “Jason is the quintessential computer nerd, with all of the social awkwardness that entails.”

  “Yes, he looked like he was going to faint,” Susan recounted the experience with an amused grin. “Some girls find the confident smooth-talkers attractive. I’ve always been a sucker for the awkward ones. There’s just something endearing about his fumbling mannerisms. I think it’s his earnestness.”

  “We know all about that,” Clarice grinned as she turned to look at Calypso. “Calypso has always had that earnest innocence and adorable na?veté that makes her irresistible.”

  Calypso’s cheeks flushed at Clarice’s words, eliciting a delighted laugh from Clarice. “See what I mean?”

  Susan laughed merrily as she watched them, her eyes full of curiosity. “Did you two just meet when all of that excitement started a week ago, or have you been together longer than that?”

  “Aria and I visited her the day before that influencer exposed her identity,” Clarice revealed with a reminiscing smile. “It feels like a lifetime ago now. When we talked to her at the hospital after watching her heal some children, she was so full of innocence and love that you couldn’t not fall in love with her. We got her address and home phone from her while we were there, intent on driving her out to her hospital visits to heal children going forward. She was so lonely and desperate for friends but hadn’t realized it until we pushed ourselves into her life. She spent all of her time helping other people and had no one to care for her. It was like seeing her come out of hibernation in the warmth of spring when she finally had some friends to reciprocate some of the love that she so freely offered to everyone else.”

  Calypso smiled at her with love in her large eyes as a golden tear ran down her cheek. Clarice and Aria smiled back at her, their eyes filled with love.

  “So…um…never mind,” Jason stopped talking, blushing as he winced inwardly. Susan looked at him questioningly and he winced outwardly too.

  “Yes, we both love her,” Clarice told him in a voice just short of laughter. “I wasn’t about to compete with Aria for Calypso’s affection. While we aren’t related by blood, I love Aria more than anyone could love a biological sister. We’ve been best friends since we were seven. We’ve been with each other through some of the worst life has to offer. We’ll be with each other forever now, and Calypso will be right there with us.”

  “That’s beautiful,” Susan sniffed, dabbing at her eyes with a napkin.

  “What’s dad up to?” Aria asked curiously. “Is he playing secret agent for Clarice again? I thought the two of you would be away for longer than a few hours.”

  “He’s portaling Arturiel around to a few of the North American Territory offices,” Emily answered with a fond smile. Her smile faded to be replaced by a look of annoyance. “Clarice, we’ll have to find a better place than the sun for a vacation home, or at least a better place on the sun than where it was at. There were a bunch of megafauna that live in that area. They decided the logs of the cabin were edible and started tearing the cabin apart. Luckily, our clothes weren’t on when they stepped on us or we would be waiting on Tamra for some new shirts. There is an angel shaped impression in the ground where we got stepped on by something the size of a brontosaurus.”

  Clarice and Aria were giggling madly by the time Emily finished speaking.

  “I would have paid good money to see that,” Clarice gasped, tears in her eyes as she laughed. “Can we time travel? I am so going to go and watch that if we can time travel.”

  “Why didn’t you move out of the way?” Aria finally managed to ask, her eyes also shimmering with golden tears of mirth.

  “We were busy in the moment,” Emily grumbled with a slight blush. “We figured they would just bugger off after they tore the cabin apart. We didn’t expect them to stomp on it.”

  Clarice dissolved into another fit of giggles as she stared at her mother in amusement.

  They all felt the blossoming power of a new angel. Aria and Clarice reeled in their humor as they all looked toward Lexi’s room excitedly.

  “What did I miss?” Jason asked with a puzzled frown as he looked in the direction they were staring.

  “There’s a new angel in the household,” Clarice purred, her eyes alight with curiosity. “I wonder what she’ll be.”

  “Is it that police officer? Mary?” Jason asked, curious to see how different she looked.

  “Yep,” Aria grinned eagerly. “Bring her down and let’s get her charged up, Lexi.”

  There was a pause, then a blur as Lexi rushed into the room, followed a moment later by Mary. She was a lot quicker than a human, but less than half the speed of what Jason usually saw the other angels move. He wondered if she was going slow on purpose, or if it was a power level thing due to being in a lower rank than the others.

  Her police hat was gone, and her hair was free of the bun. Rich glossy brown hair tumbled down her shoulders in waves. Large violet eyes stared out of a sculpted face filled with euphoric joy.

  As she came to a stop next to Lexi, Clarice walked over and pulled the two of them into a warm embrace. “Welcome to the club, Mary. We are ecstatic that you’ve joined us.”

  As they hugged her, there was a small flash of light that surrounded Mary for a moment. Clarice continued to hold them both as a golden tear ran down her cheek. Clarice pressed her cheek to Lexi’s, where a silver tear met her gold tear and created a sphere of gold that surrounded them. As it faded, a pair of wings sprouted from Mary’s back. They were different than the wings of the other angels. They were a brilliant white and looked smooth and velvety.

  Clarice finally stepped back, a grin on her face as she observed the two of them. “I’ll leave you to take care of the remaining upgrade.”

  Lexi’s face turned bright red, and she stared back at Clarice with wide eyes as she tried to speak but nothing came out.

  “It can wait until later,” Calypso announced, moving over to hug the newest angel fondly. “Welcome to the family, Mary.”

  Aria joined her, wrapping her arms around the two of them. “We’re so happy you’ve joined us, Mary.”

  “I can’t believe how good I feel!” Mary exclaimed in amazement. “Is this how good the rest of you feel all of the time?”

  “It sure is,” Clarice laughed, winking at Calypso. “Sometimes we feel even better.”

  Susan had been watching intently, her eyes studying Mary curiously. Jason watched her thoughtfully as he revisited his choice to wait on a family before ascending.

  “Okay, now that we’re all here, let’s explain some of the information we have discovered with Mary, Jason, and Susan. It will probably influence your decision on when to become an angel rather heavily when you find out.”

  “Way to psyche me up,” Jason commented dryly.

  “You’ll see,” Clarice told him mysteriously.