"Now that we have a fifth angel, I feel like we might be able to split some of our responsibilities up," Clarice spoke quietly from where she stood in the library, surrounded by sleeping children. It was only a few hours until dawn.
"We have stretched ourselves a little thin," Aria agreed from where she was standing in the large living room, also surrounded by sleeping children.
"What did you have in mind?" their mother asked quietly. She was in bed with her sleeping husband.
"After discovering that there are actual demons running around, it's hard not to make the connection that these shadow agencies are either controlled by, or heavily infiltrated by these demonic entities," Clarice spoke in a contemplative tone. "They are probably the reason this world has so much wrong with it. If we want to fix it, we have to start with them. There are five of us now, which probably still leaves us extremely outmatched unless all demons are as weak as the last ones. We need to be able to do a lot more scouting to figure out just how pervasive the demonic presence has become. We know they probably have some advanced weaponry that we have yet to see, so we don't know if we will remain invulnerable. Certainly, our mortal family and friends will not be invulnerable."
"We also have to get as many of these kids back to their parents as fast as possible," Aria added with a sigh. "I think we are going to have to explain to the parents what really happened. I don't think they'll have trouble believing us, considering who we are."
"We may want to look for a secondary base of operations as well," their mother commented. She was barely speaking aloud at all as she lay next to her husband, but they could easily hear her, thanks to their absurd levels of auditory response. "We need both a fallback location in case something happens here, and a larger place to house more people in the event of another refugee crisis like we have tonight."
"Yeah, it's kind of crowded," Clarice noted dryly as she stared at the sleeping bodies all around her.
"Obviously, those of us that can fly should handle the scouting for now," Aria mused softly. "But once the rest of you have evolved more we can split those tasks up so that we all get experience in different arenas.'
"How do we evolve?" Lexi asked curiously from where she stood on the widows walk, keeping an eye on the night sky and surrounding area.
There was a very pregnant pause as Aria and Clarice tried to think of a way to explain the cause of their evolution without sounding like deviants. They were rescued by their mother.
"Angels thrive on expressions of love," their mother told the newest angel with a smile in her voice that Clarice just knew was a smirk. "When an angel experiences a new level of love, sometimes through intimacy and other times through shared experience, they evolve."
"For instance, giving Calypso a shoulder massage triggered her first evolution," Clarice explained, and there was definitely a smirk in her voice. "But she didn't really take off until Aria smooched her."
"It was not a smooch!" Aria hissed vehemently.
"My bad," Clarice whispered contritely. "Let me rephrase that. When Aria snogged Calypso."
Aria felt her face heat up as her mother began to laugh quietly. "Snog is an even worse word than smooch!" Aria hissed in exasperation. "Can't you just say I kissed her?"
"I agree with Aria," Calypso interrupted from where she stood outside of the guest rooms the older kids were sleeping in. "Snog is even worse than smooch."
"So, kissing made you evolve?" Lexi's voice was hesitant.
"One of the things," Calypso answered quietly. "Three of us hugging triggered an evolution too. Something about the energy of three angels mixing seems to cause an evolution. That's why your eyes changed so quickly after your transformation."
"How long did it take you to get wings?" Lexi asked eagerly. "If you've only been angels for two days, it must have been pretty quick."
There was the sound of quiet rustling as Clarice moved up to the widows walk at angel speed. Lexi gasped when Clarice appeared in front of her suddenly.
"I don't have my massage table, unfortunately," Clarice murmured dryly. "It got blown up in our apartment. Since you're an angel though, you can just lay down on your belly without getting uncomfortable like a human would. Off to the bench with you."
Lexi smiled nervously and laid down on the large stone bench next to the railing. Clarice knelt down and went to work, digging her fingers into muscles at just the right amount of pressure.
Lexi let out a small groan of contentment as Clarice worked her back, shoulders, and neck. Dawn was just beginning to stain the Eastern horizon when Lexi suddenly gasped. She began glowing briefly. When the glow vanished, she stood up with a wondering smile.
"I feel so light now," she whispered excitedly.
"Let's see your back," Clarice reached out and felt her back near her shoulder blades and felt the ridges where her wings would appear. "Looks like you'll have wings pretty soon."
"We still need to get fitted at Tamra's so that we have more than one set of clothes that will work with angel wings," Clarice remembered as she felt Lexi's back. "Maybe you and I can go over once it's morning on that side of the continent and get measured. That way, you'll have some clothes ready when your wings appear."
"What did you three do when your wings appeared?" Lexi asked curiously.
"We showed up at Tamra's in bras," Clarice told her with a grin. "I was totally okay rocking the bra look, but Calypso and Aria wanted actual clothes."
Lexi laughed as she looked at Clarice, clearly imagining her in a bra. "That would definitely be awkward."
"We're angels," Clarice shrugged with a confident smile. "We literally have perfect bodies. We don't really have anything to feel self-conscious about. I remember being a teenager and always fretting about every blemish, not wanting to go out in a bikini in case I had a rash or pimple or something to be embarrassed about. As angels, we have flawless bodies. Being seen in a bra certainly wasn't going to bother me."
Lexi stared at her contemplatively as she thought about it. "I guess I didn't experience a lot of that kind of worry since I wasn't in high school. My parents sold me off when I was fourteen. I've never worried about what I look like because all it brings me is trouble."
Clarice pulled her into a tight embrace. "I know what you mean, Lexi. My Mom always said that Aria and I were too pretty for our own damn good. She was right in some cases. We had a stalker once, who would follow us everywhere we went right after high school. He'd leave notes in our lockers at the gym. We had both made it clear we weren't interested in men, but he was the type that couldn't except that. We finally had to get a restraining order on him after we found him in our room one night. Mom came running down the hall with a butcher knife when she heard Aria scream. I don't know what the idiot thought he was going to get with that kind of behavior, but a butcher knife waved around under his nose wasn't it. Boys at that age let hormones do all of their thinking. Some of them grow out of it, while some of them just get worse with age. Some of them just get freaking weird. The last time we saw him was the day we moved away to college. He was hanging around one of the neighbor's houses a few blocks away, just outside of the restraining order perimeter."
"That sounds like the creeps I've been dealing with," Lexi muttered with a small shake of her head. "Except money makes that kind of behavior worse."
"What's your last name, Lexi?" Clarice asked in a calm voice as she continued holding her tightly.
"White," Lexi answered, her voice curious. "Why?"
"Well, that's going to make things difficult," Clarice sighed resignedly. "What are your parent's first names?"
"Trisha and Adam," Lexi replied with a frown. "What do you want to know for?"
"Adam White," Clarice groaned. "There's going to be a million of them."
"Clarice?" Lexi prompted questioningly.
"I'm going to pay your parent's a visit and have a little chat," Clarice informed her lightly. "If I can find them, that is."
Lexi was silent for almost a minute before she spoke again. "What are you going to do to them?"
"Let's just say that I'm going to enlighten them," Clarice said with a frosty smile.
Lexi didn't say anything, but she did pull Clarice into a tighter embrace.
They stood there until the sun finally crested the horizon. Clarice sighed as she released their newest angel. "I better go back to the library before the children wake up."
"Thanks, Clarice," Lexi spoke softly, her voice barely a whisper. "For everything."
Clarice leaned forward and kissed her forehead. "Happy Birthday, Lexi."
Lexi beamed back at her, love radiating out of her in waves. "It's definitely been the best birthday ever."
Clarice jumped lightly down the ladder opening and blurred through the house until she was back in the library. The children were all fast asleep still. Calypso had played her harp for them after they had all gone to bed. She had sung a lullaby that had dropped them all deep into a peaceful sleep. Clarice had expected some of them to wake up with night terrors, but Calypso had clearly worked her magic on them well.
"I'm going to start making some breakfast for them," she heard their mother say. "I'm guessing they'll start waking up soon."
Clarice smiled at the lucky kiddos. They had a world class chef on hand to make them breakfast. It was a small thing, but they deserved all of the goodness they could get out of their new life to counterbalance the cards they had been dealt so far.
Clarice opened the lid to one of the laptops in the library and did a quick search on the missingkidsdotorg site. She looked at the name on their auras and ran it through the search. She was able to get the city they were missing from, but not who the parents were. She hoped the children knew their home addresses and parents' names.
An eight year old named Luther was the first child to rise. He sat bolt upright, looking around blankly. Clarice waved at him and his eyes suddenly lit up with the memory of the night before.
"My mom's making some breakfast for you when you're ready," she told him softly.
His eyes lit up with excitement and he stepped gingerly around the other sleeping kids. Clarice smiled to herself as she watched him make a beeline for the veranda.
It wasn't long before all of the children were awake and eagerly joining Luther on the veranda.
As they ate, Clarice quizzed them for parents' names and addresses. She was even able to get quite a few phone numbers. It still felt strange not needing to write it down somewhere to remember. Her memory was like a bottomless pit now, with no end to the things she could instantly recall.
"Most of them live within a few hundred miles of each other," Clarice told the other angels. "The demons didn't go very far to find kids to snatch. I'm going to start calling the parents I have phone numbers for and setting up meetings. We can probably call the police department the demon worked at to get information about the other kids' parents."
"You're so good at the extrovert stuff too," Aria congratulated her with a grateful smile. "I'm totally good with taking the kids to their parents after you set up the meeting."
"You should probably focus on scouting, since you can fly," Clarice suggested as she absently ruffled the hair of a girl that was hugging her. Some of the children just wanted to feel the powerful love and comfort that angel embraces offered and would randomly run over and hug them. "We don't want any surprises popping up, especially with all of these kids here."
Aria nodded her agreement. "Okay, twist my arm why don't you. I'll fly if I have to."
Calypso laughed at Aria's words, absently rustling the hair of two kids that were attached to her.
"When is Dad going to become an angel?" Aria asked their mother as she entered with another platter loaded down with food.
"Sometime today, he says," their mother replied absently as she refilled the plates of several of the teenage boys who had bottomless pits for stomachs. "Probably after we've finished reuniting the kids with their families."
"You need to find Devon a wife while you're out and about too," their mother added firmly. "He's not going to make the change until he's started a family. If we leave it up to him, he'll be an old man before he finds someone to marry."
"Okay, I'll add it to my to-do list," Clarice responded with a wry smile.
After they were all fed and being entertained by Calypso and Lexi, Clarice went back to the library to make some phone calls. She started with the youngest child that knew their parent's number, Julie, who was seven years old.
"Hello, this is Deborah," a woman's voice answered her first call.
"Hello Deborah, my name is Clarice," she introduced herself, using her angel voice to make sure she had the woman's attention. "Calypso, Aria, and I have rescued some children from a bad place and one of them is yours. We have reason to believe the government is partially involved in the abductions, so we would like to bring her to you in person, rather than deal with law enforcement. Is there somewhere we can meet you with Julie?"
The line went silent for a moment, then a choked sob escaped the woman. "You have my Julie?"
"Yes, she is safe now, but we need to talk about what she has been through," Clarice told her gently. "Where can we meet up?"
"I'll drive home right now," the woman choked out, her voice filled with emotion. "I'll be there in fifteen minutes."
Clarice confirmed her address, then hung up the phone. She found Julie playing hopscotch with Lexi in the dirt where they had drawn crude hopscotch lines. "Julie, it's time to go back to your mom now," Clarice told her with a warm smile.
Julie stopped jumping and immediately ran up to Clarice, her eyes shining with eagerness. "I'm ready!"
Clarice pulled her up into her arms. "We're going to fly this time, okay?"
The Julie's eyes went wide, and her smile nearly split her face in half. With a laugh, Clarice launched into the air and rocketed across the continent. Julie screamed with excitement as they went many times the speed of sound without a trace of wind. She landed in the front yard of a small house and waited another ten minutes for the mother to arrive. It was surprisingly quiet on the street. One car drove past while they waited, but the driver had been completely oblivious to the angel near the house.
A white Ford Focus pulled into the driveway and a woman close to Clarice's age launched out of the car like she was ejected. With a low cry, she took her daughter from Clarice's arms and hugged her tightly, tears streaming down her face.
"Mommy, I missed you so much!" Julie told her mother as she clung to her neck.
"I missed you to, Julie," Deborah sniffed, her hand petting her daughter's head.
"Do you mind if we go inside before anyone notices me here?" Clarice asked gently.
The young mother smiled through her tears and hurried up to the front door. She struggled for a moment to get her keys without putting her daughter down but eventually managed to get the door unlocked.
Clarice followed her inside, noting the large stack of missing posters sitting on an end table. She heard another vehicle pull up, and a moment later the young father also came in. When he saw his daughter in her mother's arms, he rushed forward and pulled them both into a hug, sobbing his heart out. Clarice left them to their reunion for another five minutes before she spoke up.
"I need to speak with one of you in private for a moment," Clarice told them softly.
"I'll go," Deborah said, briefly touching her husband's cheek and kissing her daughter's forehead.
Deborah led her into a bedroom and closed the door. "Where did you find her?"
"This isn't going to be pleasant," Clarice warned her sympathetically. "You may want to sit down."
Deborah's eyes began streaming tears again as she sat on the edge of the bed and watched Clarice with dread.
"We were following the trail of a corrupt police chief who was involved in human trafficking," Clarice began, wishing there was a nice way to tell someone their daughter had been tortured. "We tracked him to an abandoned dairy farm. There were forty other kids in an underground bunker beneath a silo. The police chief was not a human. He was a demon. I know that sounds crazy, but if angels exist, so can demons, apparently. They were harvesting the children's blood, but they were doing horrible things to them while they harvested their blood. I won't go into the details, because they are too horrible to repeat. Calypso was able to erase most of their memories, so all they remember is the day they were taken to the silo. They have no memory of the horrible things done to them. Calypso healed their wounds as well. I'm so sorry that this happened to your daughter, Deborah."
Deborah was staring at her with horrified eyes. She let out a despairing wail and Clarice pulled her into a comforting embrace, flooding her system with love and comfort. Deborah gasped as she felt the overpowering emotions flood her body, slowly drying up her tears.
"She remembers there were demons, and I want you to understand that they are real as well," Clarice told her gently. "We were able to easily kill them, but there may be stronger demons out there that are not so easily vanquished. Don't trust anyone in positions of authority for now. The FBI, police, CPS, none of them. These demons have infiltrated many of our institutions and we are still trying to figure out the extent of their influence."
She felt Deborah nod into her shoulder as she clung to her for the relief she needed to escape the horrors in her mind.
"I have 39 other children to get back to their parents, so I need to leave you now," Clarice told her regretfully. "I wish I could stay longer to help you."
"Thank you!" Deboarh whispered fervently. "Thank you for bringing my baby back to me."
"You are more than welcome," Clarice smiled down at her. "We are going to fix this broken world."
The small family of three followed her out onto the porch to say goodbye. Julie wanted one last angel hug. Clarice grinned as she pulled her up into her arms again. "You take care of your parents, okay Julie?"
"Okay, Clarice," Julie accepted with a firm nod.
"Goodbye, Julie," Clarice smiled wistfully as she handed her back to her parents. She stepped away and then launched herself into the air, disappearing in seconds.