“So you feel that The First Noru’s actions were not motivated by a desire to save her parents as she would have us believe, but from her subconscious need to punish them for not telling her about her connection to the new evil?” the interviewer asks.

“Exactly, Robin. Pryor isn’t thinking about the bigger picture. She’s only fourteen and she can only fixate on her emotions. She destroyed the Pathway because of her unresolved anger at her parents.”

“So you’re saying there was no plot to destroy the Pathway by the new evil?” the interviewer pushes.

“None at all.”

“So what happens now, Dr. Monroe?”

“Well, now the unruly group is going to have to deal with what their selfish leader has done. I mean, really think about it: The only ones who could have protected the Noru until they came into their full powers are gone. It’s very likely Pryor Cane has doomed not only herself but her whole team...”

“Thank you, Dr. Monroe. When they come back, they may be doomed but they are always at the forefront of fashion. Next on ‘Up!’ The top ten outfits worn by the Noru twins this year. And how you can get their look for less.”

“Turn it off,” I instruct Randy.

“Sorry, I just can’t believe you guys have your own channel,” he says as he turns the TV off.

“The ‘Up!’ Network; all crap, all the time,” East replies.

Earlier, we dropped Donavan off at his house. He was so shaken by the loss of his dad, we had to stay with him until the rest of his family arrived. Afterwards, Swoop suggested we stop to find out the latest on the Pathway explosion. We ended up here, at an electronics store, just outside London.

It had only been a few hours since the Pathway blew up, but everyone in the Angel world knows, thanks to blogs, Twitter, and TV. Someone even has footage up on YouTube already.

While the media is mostly uninformative crap, we did learn something: It will take some time before the Pathway can be rebuilt since most of the Paras who had built it were stuck in the light. And the Pathway can’t be constructed from above.

“So when I just press ‘00’ on the TV the station comes up?” Randy asks.

“Yeah, you have to know it’s there to see it—just like with our wings,” Key replies.

“How did they know so quickly?” Randy wonders.

“Well, when you screw up in the Angel world, it takes no time for everyone to find out,” I reply as I head out of the store in utter misery.

“Pry, it wasn’t your fault. You saved everyone in the light,” Randy reminds me as the group follows me out.

“What I did was separate my friends from their parents,” I reply.

“East’s mom is still on earth,” Key says.

“That’s right. So if any of you want meatloaf with a side of ‘why can’t you be more like your sister,’ come see me,” East adds.

“No thanks. I’m usually full from the bottomless bowl of ‘Your sister is perfect’ stew that’s always being served at my house. It keeps me pretty full most of the time,” Swoop says.

“Mom and Dad don’t think I’m perfect. And the reason they are always on you is because you need to be more responsible,” Key says.

“Again, what’s wrong with living in the moment?” Swoop insists.

“Isn’t that what people say right before they stumble into an all-night chapel in Las Vegas?” Bex asks East.

“Followed by the inevitable question, first thing in the morning: Who are you again?” East jokes; they share a laugh.

“Face it, Swoop, you could use a little structure,” Key says gently.

“Why, so I could be like you and have designated underwear for the dates of the week?” she teases.

“She does that?” East asks Swoop.

“Yup. Monday panties, Tuesday panties...”

“I’m not that neurotic. I can be just as wild as you,” Key counters.

“What are you gonna do? Wear Friday panties on Saturday? Shocking,” Swoop replies as she places one hand on her chest and the other over her mouth, as if shocked. 

“Leave my girl alone, Swoop. She knows how to live in the moment. Just yesterday she had a sneeze that was only planned two weeks in advance,” Bex says.

“Oh, okay Bear, keep it up and you’ll never get close enough to even look at my calendar,” she says, calling her boyfriend by the playful nickname she gave him years ago.

“EXCUSE ME! WILL YOU GUYS STOP JOKING? I DESTORYED THE DAMN PATHWAY!!!” I blurt out.

“We know,” East says softly.

“This is bad, guys,” I plead.

“We know,” Swoop confirms.

“I put us all in even more danger.”

“We. Know,” Key says.

“Why aren’t you guys pissed?” I ask.

“Pry, we hate that it happened but...” 

“Key’s right. We lost our parents for a few days or maybe even a few weeks. But if you didn’t do what you did, we’d lose them forever,” Swoop agrees.

“The media acts like I wanted this to happen,” I reply.

“The media blows. You did the right thing,” East says.

“Yes, but you guys should still be worried,” I remind them.

“We are, very much so. But given what you have to do when we get home, we figured we should keep our worries to ourselves for the moment,” Key says.

“Oh Omnis! I forgot,” I say, mostly to myself.

“What is it?” Randy asks.

“Sam; I have to tell Sam our parents can’t come home. Randy, how do I do that without breaking his heart?”

Once back in New York City, we head straight to my house. I try to brace myself. We enter the living room and find Sam rolling around on the floor laughing helplessly with his babysitter. Suddenly the task that felt hard to do before, feels impossible now.

Sam and the sitter make silly faces and try to outdo each other. The babysitter is a grown-up but in a very loose sense of the word. In fact, Sam may be far more mature than his sitter.

“Hi,” I call out from the doorway, trying to sound upbeat.

“Pryor!” Sam calls out as soon as he sees me.

He runs up to me, still laughing and gleeful. Tony comes up to us, he’s smiling but behind his eyes, there’s sadness there. He’s heard the news.

“I didn’t know Sam’s sitter was an angel,” Randy whispers to me.

“His name is Tony-tone. He used to be a Seller. That’s a human who lived a pretty corrupt life on earth but died doing something selfless. They get to live over and over again until they do enough good to become an angel or enough bad to go into Difi, the house of fire. Most Sellers spend their many lives on earth as less-than-reputable pawnshop owners,” I inform him.

“So Tony became an angel?” he asks.

“After many, many, many attempts,” East replies.

The plump, kind-faced angel smiles at me. The only thing brighter than his smile is his cabana-inspired shirt with palm trees and coconuts.

“Tony, did you hear about...” I ask.

He nods, mouths the words “I’m sorry,” and signals to me that Sam doesn’t yet know.

“We played chess and Tony cheated,” Sam says.

“Hey, hey, I’m old; old angels get three turns at a time,” Tony lies.

Sam keeps laughing. That’s when I look at Tony suspiciously.

“You let him have Snap chips before bed, didn’t you?” I ask.

“Only half a bag,” Tony replies.

“Before you ask, human, Snaps are treats that give angels a burst of power for a few moments,” Bex says.

“The Paras have since made kiddie Snaps that don’t give powers but simulates an emotion. They come in chips, bubble gum, and all kind of goodies, right Sam?” Key asks.

“Yeah, and they have ice cream now too!” he replies.

“But you’re not supposed to have any before bed, are you?” East inquires.

Sam smiles at him and shakes his head “no.”

“What flavor did you have?” Swoop asks.

“Silly-Goof.”

“Well that explains the look on your face; that’s the best one,” she replies.

“How much did you really have?” I ask.

“Two bags,” Sam says.

He quickly places his hand over his mouth, shocked he had let the truth slip.

“Tony!” I scold.

“I’m sorry. But who can resist that face?” Tony replies.

“Are you mad at me?” Sam asks.

“No, sweetie,” I assure him.

“Yay! Pry, where’s Mom and Dad?”

I don’t answer. I would give anything not to be in this moment. Sam asks once again. I pick him up, take him over to the steps where my mom always takes me. I have him sit on my lap while I search for a way to explain what’s happened.

“Mom and Dad are still in the light,” I explain carefully.

“When are they coming back?” he asks.

“I don’t know. They went up and some bad guys tried to use the Pathway to hurt them. So I destroyed the Pathway. That way Mom and Dad are safe.”

“Okay, but when are they coming back?”

“They aren’t coming back—for now. As soon as they figure out how to fix the Pathway, they’ll be back.”

“So tomorrow?”

“It might take a little longer than that,” I admit.

“But it’s almost story time. Mom has to tell me a story.”

“I’ll tell you a story, okay?”

“No! I don’t want you. I want Mommy!” he cries.

Huge droplets of tears overflow in his eyes and spill over. Sometimes I wish we were like other angels; they can’t cry. But for some reason Norus can; although I myself think it’s a waste of time and have yet to cry.

Sam jumps from my lap and runs away from me. I stand up and call out after him, but he refuses to stop. He runs upstairs to his room and slams the door.

“Sam!” I call out again as I head upstairs.

I knock on the door but he won’t let me in.

“Sam, please, I want to talk to you.”

“No; you made Mommy go away.”

“I didn’t have a choice...”

“I hate you!” he yells.

“Let us try,” Key says as she comes up the steps.

I shake my head and allow her to knock. After a few moments, Key convinces Sam to let her come in by promising she’ll take him to a Snap shop where he can get anything he wants. I head downstairs and leave Sam to her, knowing how good she is with him.

I walk past the group and head out the door.

I want to take off but I’m not even sure where I would go. So instead I sit on the front steps of my house and look out at the sky. I hear the door open behind me. I don’t bother to look up.

“Randy, I need a minute alone, okay?”

“It’s not Randy,” he says.

I turn and find the last being I expected standing above me.

This is perfect. Just perfect.

“Bex, I can’t do this right now. So if you want to yell at me, put it on your schedule for later. Or better yet just throw a Powerball at me and get it over with.”

“The human was right; blowing up the Pathway was genius,” he replies.

“What is this, sarcasm?”

“No, it’s not.”

I look up at him and there is no mocking, sardonic glare on his face. His expression is like his voice, sincere. He sits down beside me.

“My brother hates me,” I confide to him.

“Sam will be fine. He has everything he needs; he has you,” Bex replies.

“Really? Because a few hours ago, I was the worst thing that could happen to anyone.”

“I know I’ve been...hard on you.”

“You’ve been a complete Tool,” I correct him.

“A little.”

“I know me leaving the group sucked but—”

“See that’s just it: you didn’t just leave the group, you left me,” Bex replies, unable to look me in the eye.

“What do you mean?”

“Pry, we used to train together long after the others were off Recharging because everyone expected more from us. You have to lead the Norus and I will someday have to lead the Paras. We were in this together. And the night before the Atu was to take place, we talked, do you remember?” he asks.

“Yeah, I was nervous about leading and you helped me get over it.”

“I thought I did too but then you didn’t show up. I’ve spent the last year wondering what I could have said the night before to scare you. You didn’t show up to the Atu because I failed to help you. Seeing you just reminds me of that.”

“Bex, the night before the Atu, everything was fine. Really, you did help me.”

“Then why didn’t you show up? Please, Pry, what happened?”

“I was reading from the Muse. I got to page eighty-seven and I freaked out. You didn’t fail me, Bex. I failed myself.”

“What was on page eighty-seven?”

“It doesn’t matter. The point is I am the one to blame, not you, so please—”

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but I’m free now, right?” Randy asks in the doorway.

“What?” Bex replies.

“Well, not to be insensitive or anything but now that Death is stuck in the light, that means I get to live right?” Randy asks hopefully.

“Randy, I’m sorry but that’s not how it works. Death, Time, and Fate still work in the light,” I reply.

“Oh, okay...” he says sadly as he heads back into the house.

Bex and I follow him inside. Key comes from upstairs and tells us she was able to get Sam to Recharge. I thank her and ask if he’s okay.

“Not now, but in time I think he’ll come around,” she replies.

“Least he has time,” Randy says under his breath.

I return my focus to Randy, who hangs his head and slumps down on the sofa.

“Randy, don’t worry. We’ll figure out a way to save you,” I vow.

“How? We don’t even know where to find Oden,” he replies.

“Oden, the demon?” Tony asks.

“You know him?” I ask.

“Yeah, horrible demon; great client though. Back when I was a Seller I could always count on him to buy a few poisonous vials, pain elixirs, or PTC. Otherwise referred to as Portable torture chambers.”

“Do you know where we can find him?”

“Well, yeah he’s always hanging out at—never mind,” Tony says.

“Tony. C’mon, spill,” Swoop pushes.

“No, no, no. Oden is not a demon you should mess around with. Your parents wouldn’t like it. I can’t tell you,” Tony says firmly.

“Tony, if we don’t find him, Randy will die,” Key informs him.

We go on to explain Randy’s situation. After a while Tony agrees to tell us where Oden’s hangout is but only if we promise to call him for help if we should need it. We didn’t want to point out to Tony that we are more powerful than him. It would have been rude.

“Okay, okay, but when your parents get back, you didn’t hear this from me,” Tony insists.

“Promise. Now where can we find Oden?” I push.

“The only bar around that caters to high ranking, degenerate, murderous demons: Flesh & Fools.”

Again Randy wants to come along. However this time I’m able to convince him to stay behind and look after Sam when he wakes up. I assured Randy that although Tony is with my little brother, it would help him to have another familiar face around.

There’s another reason I need Randy to stay behind: we got way too close to Randy’s death the last time we encountered demons. Holders are strong, but the blast nearly ripped it open and had it done so, Randy would have been killed.

The group and I head to the demon hangout located just outside of Chicago. We land in the alley and scan the area. The streets reek of sewage and decay. Rats scurry to and from nearby trash bins, most of which are overflowing.

“Bex, maybe you and Key should consider this your next ‘date night destination,’” East teases.

“Thanks, but rat droppings don’t really do it for me,” Key replies.

“Oh, what does?” East asks flirtatiously.

“East, you are so not ready,” she says, shaking her head playfully.

“Something’s wrong here,” I observe as we head towards the bar.

“I know; I just ruined my shoes,” Swoop says in disgust.

“Oh no, the new ones?” Key asks, going over to her sister.

“I mean something bad happened,” I explain.

“Pry, I just got rat guts on my new Alexander McQueen boots. Bad doesn’t even begin to cover it,” Swoop says as she tries to clean her heels with a tissue.

“Just when you think things can’t get bad enough: war, famine, disease and now...a muddy shoe,” Easts mocks.

Shocked at the level of shoe insensitivity, the twins push East over.

“Hey, watch how you handle the merchandise,” East replies as he gathers himself.

“Pryor’s right, something’s wrong,” Bex says as he scans the nearly empty street.

“Alright, alright. What is it?” Swoop asks.

“Well this is a demon hangout, right?” I ask.

“Yeah.”

“So where are the demons?” I reply.

The group takes a second look and from the expressions on their faces, they now understand my alarm.

“Maybe they’re all inside,” Bex suggests.

“Demons don’t do well with limits. They wouldn’t just stick to the bar. They’d have run off the whole neighborhood,” East replies.

“So where are they?” Key asks.

“Let’s go in and find out,” I say to them.

We turn our attention to the red door entrance of Flesh & Fools. There’s a warning carved into the wood.

“This establishment is not reasonable for loss of limbs.”

“Charming,” East says.

We enter the bar carefully, not knowing what to expect. The place looks like it’s been trashed. There are broken bar stools throughout the room, shattered glass and demon blood everywhere.

“What the hell happened?” I ask.

“I’ve never been to a demon bar, maybe this is how they all look,” Key says.

“I have and they don’t look this bad; something went down,” Swoop says.

“Should I ask what you were doing in a demon bar?” I wonder.

“I wouldn’t,” Bex cautions me.

“Swoop, do demon bars have firework displays?” East asks.

“No.” 

“Then we better get down on the floor,” East says.

“Huh?”

“GET DOWN!” The half angel, half human yells.

We all hit the floor seconds before a raging ball of fire zooms past us.

“It’s coming from the back room; cover me,” Bex says as he heads towards the direction of the blaze.

“Bex, no! We don’t know how many of them are back there,” I reason.

A second fireball is launched in our direction.

“Okay, but we can’t just sit here,” Bex says.

“Swoop, Key, and I will go around to the back door, that way we can attack from both sides,” I order.

“How do we even know there’s a back door?” East asks.

“There’s always a back door in these kind of places: in case a demon needs to escape a vengeful boyfriend, flesh-stripping Powerballs, bookies...” Swoop says.

“Flesh-stripping Powerballs? Okay, when this is over, you and I really need to talk,” Key says to her twin as we head out to the back door.

We enter a long dark hallway with doors on both sides. Straight ahead, we can hear East and Bex battling. I send Key and Swoop to help the guys while I investigate the rooms. I enter with hands out, ready to Pull any demon that jumps out at me.

There’s no need to Pull any of the demons in the room because they are all dead. There are nine of them spread throughout the room. Each with gaping wounds and blank stares.

I check out the other room across the hall and the same thing. Except this room has six dead demons.

I head to the back of the room, where I could have sworn something moved. I lean in closer on the dead demon. He has the word “Kill” tattooed in big letters on the left side of his face. His wings are still and his eyes are turned up towards the ceiling.

I could’ve sworn I saw movement...

“Pry, you good?” Swoop calls out.

“Yeah. I’m good.”

I head to he front of the bar where the group has killed all but one of the demons that were attacking us. Bex is holding the remaining demon in a headlock.

“This here is Roman. We kept him alive because he seems like a helpful guy. How about it, Roman, you gonna help us out?” Bex says.

“Suck it,” Roman says, filled with venom.

“Roman, you’re a second-rate demon surrounded by Noru. The best you can do is stay alive for another...five minutes. These words you’re speaking now will be the last ones you ever speak. Are you sure you want to go ‘Suck it?’ Personally, I’d go with maybe a Shakespeare quote. You know something from Julius Ceaser maybe?” East says.

The demon laughs or at least tries to; the hold Bex has on him makes it hard for the laughter to come out.

“You have no wings; you can weaken us with a force field but you can’t kill us. You’re not Noru. You’re a freaking Quo; you’re the team’s mascot,” Roman informs East.

Without warning, East yanks the demon from Bex and hurls him across the room. Normally Bex would have been able to hold on to Roman but East caught him totally off guard. The demon crashes onto a nearby table but he continues to laugh at the Quo.

Now fully enraged, East places his hands in front of Roman’s face and starts to “hug” him. We watch as the laser lasso emerges from East’s palm and wraps itself around Roman’s head. It starts to drain his energy. While it can’t kill the demon, having the lasso around his head can cause him brain damage and render him useless to us.

East is generally easy going, but having the least amount of power is always a sore subject. And although Quos are more accepted now than they were years ago, many beings still consider them a “lesser” race. It’s a stupid and narrow-minded way of thinking.

“East, stop it; we need him,” Key says.

He pays her no mind. He glares at the demon that is about to lose consciousness.

“It’s okay man, let it go,” Bex pushes.

“YOU DON’T THINK I CAN KILL YOU?” East challenges furiously.

“You have Preschool powers; I’m not afraid of you,” the demon whispers smugly.

“East, get away from him,” I order.

He withdraws the lasso and turns his attention to me. The demon, seeing his chance, uses the last bit of strength he has left and crawls out the window. We all go after him. Roman tries to take flight. Luckily Swoop moves like lightning and casts him down to the ground.

“Don’t leave now, Roman, it’s rude,” Swoop informs him.

He groans as he hits the ground, hard. I bend down on the ground beside him. I focus and begin to raise his fear level. He starts to squirm and cry out.

“What happened here?” I ask him.

“No, please, make it stop!” the demon screams.

I’m not sure what he sees in his mind’s eye but whatever it is, he’s terrified. 

“I will stop Binding you, once you talk to me; what happened?” I ask again.

“The new evil has been hunting higher-ranking demons. Taking them out one at a time—please make it stop!” Roman says, too fearful of the visions in his head to go on.

“Why would Malakaro take out his own kind?” Key asks.

“I don’t know but all the high-ranking demons are in hiding. They’ve never seen an evil like this,” Roman says as he starts shaking violently from fear.

“Where is Oden hiding? We need to find him,” I ask.

“I d-don’t k-kn-know,” Roman replies.

I Bind him again. His level of fear is now at the point, where had he been human, he would have gone into cardiac arrest.

“NO PLEASE!” he begs.

“Tell me where Oden is hiding!” I shout.

“I don’t know.”

I go to Bind him even further.

“Wait! Wait! There’s a demon I know; he hangs out with Oden a lot. He could tell you where to find him,” Roman begs.

“What’s his name?”

“ ‘Kill’ or at least that’s what we call him. He was in here before Malakaro sent his team.”

“Does he have a tattoo on his face?” I ask.

“Yes, that’s him,” Roman says, averting his eyes to whatever terror looms in his mind’s eye.

“He’s dead. I saw him in the back room,” I tell the group.

“I guess that means we don’t need Roman anymore,” East says murderously.

I go to Bind him one final time.

“No, no. Kill is alive. He can regenerate.”

Damn it!

I take off like a rocket inside the bar. I head to the back room and kick down the door. Sure enough the demon with the face tattoo is gone. But he’s around here somewhere because I’m reading fear nearby.

I head back into the hallway, just in time to see Kill bolt out the back door. I take off after him. He is airborne within seconds. I’m right on his heels. He turns and throws fireballs at me, one after the other. I manage to dodge them but I can’t retaliate. If I kill him, I won’t find Oden.

Kill dives towards the ground and lands. I quickly follow but I lose him when he ducks between a row of townhomes. I scan the area in search of the demon but so far, nothing. Then I hear a bloodcurdling scream coming from one of the homes. I run towards the noise.

A woman is sprawled out at the front door; her blood coats the front steps. I bend down and check her pulse;