Enid closed her eyes and opened them as she did this she clenched and unclenched her fists as she looked down at the brutalized woman before her. She looked at the Sheriff who had pulled his hat and off and put it to his chest. She reached her palm out and touched the woman’s chest. She chanted the Atlantean words to transfer her pain to her. The body she wore was shredded then it healed itself. She slipped her hair elastic from around her wrist and pulled her platinum blonde hair back into a ponytail. She knew the woman to be Willow, one of the workers at the brothel who would look after the Sheriff’s girls while he worked. Willow woke with a scream. Enid put her hands on her cheeks and met the woman’s gaze. She forced her will onto her.

“You fell asleep with the girls in the bed and woke to find the house broken into the and the girls missing. That is all that happened today. It was otherwise uneventful. That is all you will ever remember. Sleep.”

Willow’s eyes shut lazily, and Enid let her head down gently and looked up to the sheriff.

“You can never tell her what really happened. That kind of trauma can break a person.”

The sheriff looked at her strangely.

“Are you an angel?”

Enid sighed.

“I’m a soldier in a war. Like I said. I am what I need to be.”

“You took her wounds with not a whimper.”

“My father did worse when I was child…and a woman.”

The sheriff blinked and rubbed his face.

“It doesn’t matter, what matters is your girls. We can safely assume it was Clayton based on this note which is barely legible. He wants to meet me at high noon if I don’t show he’ll shoot the girls. Or I think that is what it says. Where do they hide out?”

“Don’t rightly know or I would have had a posse put together and tracked them down. No man lays a finger on my children and lives to tell the tale.”

“I’ll go look. I can search a pretty wide area as long as the night holds. If I can’t find them, we’ll have to hope Clayton keeps his word.”

“What are you going to do if you find them?”

“You remember when I first came to town, and I said anyone who comes after me or mine has got to be the dumbest bunch of humans to ever live?”

“I reckon I do.”

“I’m going to kill them all and get your girls back.”

Enid pushed the door of the house open and lept into the air leaving a slack jawed Sheriff in her wake. She used more of her precious blood to alter time and increase her search area. There was a lot of territory, and the search was fruitless. She returned to town and landed shortly before dawn. She’d have to wait to see if Hazel had been any more successful in tracking them with her wolf form. She sealed her Atlantean armor to the neck and pulled her gun belt around her waist. She sat down on the stairs of the Saloon and put the bullets in her clip. She sighed. All she had left ammo wise were a dozen silver AR-15 rounds. One clip of normal rounds and one clip of blessed rounds. She wasn’t about to use a six shooter when she had access to a Glock which she was intimately familiar with. She loaded the normal clip into the gun and slid it into its tactical holster. She knew she wouldn’t have to be faster on the draw. He would go for the center of mass. She would take her time and go for the head.

She wrapped her arms around her knees and pressed them to her chest and watched the sleepy town of Goldwater come to life. She glanced at her holo-phone she wasn’t bothering to hide. She had adjusted it to local time as best she could. Four hours until Clayton would show up. She moved to the edge of the porch for the saloon where she wouldn’t be in any foot traffic. Her Holo-web kept her unseen.

She didn’t see Hazel or Helen show up the whole time she waited. She sighed and stood up cracking her neck. She heard horses in the distance. She saw Clayton and his gang appear around the bend. He pulled back on his reins and laughed.

“Coward didn’t even bother showing up.”

Enid stood up and walked to the middle of the road. She tapped her necklace and the hologram concealing her shimmered out of existence. Their horses bucked and reared at her sudden appearance. She fell into her usual English which was very Scottish sounding when she spoke.

“I would say you are the coward attacking a defenseless woman and kidnapping children. I’m going to make sure that goes on your tombstone.”

“You were a fool to show up here Enid. Don’t worry, I’ll be shooting to injure, wouldn’t want his prize to die too easily.”

Enid quirked an eyebrow at that. He stepped closer and she felt the wave nausea as she felt the demonic energy radiating off him. If the escapee was hoping she would play fair he was sadly mistaken. She pulled her Glock out of its holster and started running for cover. She pressed the clip release and was reaching into her bag her blessed rounds. She felt several bullets belt her armor harmlessly but one round went right through it like it didn’t exist. It burned like acid. She held her side with her left hand and squeezed off a round the Clayton moved faster than a normal human and she missed her bullet hit one of his gang members in the chest and he went down. She tapped her wrist activating comms on her holo-phone.

“Hazel are you in range? The fallen angel is Clayton. Did you find the girls?”

“Yes mom, why were your comms off?”

“Well get back here as soon as you can. I took hit, some sort of bullet went right through the armor. Its burning me up from the inside. And he’s moving too fast for me to catch him with my gun.”

Enid leaned out and took another shot, she was close, it clipped his shoulder but seemed mostly ineffective. She tried to unleash her angelic form but the bullet in the wound seemed to be stopping her. She held her side and saw her blood in her palm. She grimaced and pulled out her AR-15. Flipping the safety off and turned it on full auto. She leaned on the wagon she was using for cover and sprayed the gang that were in the midst of reloading. She killed and injured several with the long burst. She only had fifteen rounds left in the magazine. She could hear the ones she had hit crying out and groaning. She flipped it to short burst and let three rounds lose while leaning over the wagon. Another went down. Leaving three normal humans and a ridiculously fast demon. She saw him appear beside her and she put three silver rounds in his chest. He stumbled back and she dropped the AR-15, pulled out the pistol and shot at him but her injury messed up her aim she hit him in the thigh as he tried to flee. He stumbled backwards shooting another three of the demonic rounds in her direction. The wood seemed to slow them down just fine. She was gasping for breath and she could feel her lung collapsing. The bullet seemed to be pushing itself through her body causing more and more damage in its wake. Soon it would hit something more vital than her lungs.

Not fucking good, not fucking good at all.

The three remaining gang members had just emptied their weapons again and were reloading. She leaned towards the edge of the wagon and glimpsed Clayton, or the thing that used to be Clayton struggling to remove the two rounds she’d put in his leg. She didn’t have a clean enough shot. She put her pistol down and picked up her rifle and waited for one of the remaining humans to pop up to shoot her and put three rounds in his head. She could hear the other two humans arguing about whether they should leave or not. Then a shot that didn’t come from either side of the conflict rang out. Then another. All that was left was Enid and the fallen angel who seemed to be in the same pickle she was. The bullets she had hit him with were slowly incapacitating him.

“I hit your chest you’ll die before I do.”

“And then Lucifer loses his prize. I can’t imagine that is going to make you popular when my daughter shows up and sends you back to your hell.”

He shot again. The bullet whizzed by where Enid’s had had been.

Five.

Enid coughed and she saw blood spray out. It was working its way out of her lungs. She reached into her pack and pulled out her second to last grenade. This one wasn’t blessed but it would destroy his cover. She struggled to her feet and pulled the pin out with her teeth and lobbed the frag grenade in his general direction.

“Throwing rocks now? Out of bullets?”

“Nah, same kind of present I sent your boss about two hundred years ago.”

The silence was broken by the explosion and the horses who hadn’t bolted were running every which way. Shards of broken wood started falling from the sky she stood up, his last round went wide. She dropped the AR-15 again and picked up her Glock. She pressed her hand over the bullet wound. And limped her way across the body strewn street and finally stood over the charred broken remains of Clayton. He blinked up at her with his good eye as his shaking hand tried to reload his six shooter. Enid reached out her good arm and summoned the staff of the universe. She knew it would probably kill her at this point but she was damned if he was going to get away with this. She wished it was one of her soul blades so she could finish him once and for all. The staff shimmered and became a blade made of gold and runes etched themselves long its blade. The same ones soul blades possessed her eyes went wide. She didn’t have much time left so she just stabbed downwards piercing his heart. He screeched and his flesh burned away around the blade and eventually divine light consumed his whole being. He vanished with a flash. Enid released the blade and it vanished.

Enid fell backwards and began to cough up more blood. The sheriff ran over and was looking down at her. She couldn’t speak her throat was too clogged with blood. He scooped her up and ran to the doctor’s office. She blacked out at that point. When she woke up she was laying on a bed in the sun. Her chest was stitched together and looked like something out of Frankenstein. She struggled to sit up but the Sheriff’s strong hands pushed her down.

“Doc said you can’t move. You’ll rip the stitches.”

Enid stopped trying to move and fell backwards.

“Need to get out of the sun.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Take me to a cellar, I’ll heal, I’m gonna die if you don’t.”

He frowned but picked her up and carried her across the street to his house and tugged the cellar doors open with his foot. Taking her down into the darkness below. She felt the bullet get pushed out of her body and then heard the sound of metal hitting stone. She cracked her neck again. The damage would take time to heal but the bullet was out which was her main concern. The stitching ripped out of her flesh and fell to the ground as her body rejected it. The sheriff felt for her, but his hands found her breasts. He snatched them back quickly.

“It was a demonic bullet, my body will take time to heal the damage fully. But it’s out of me and I’m no longer in danger of dying.”

“Sarah…my daughters… did it tell you what it did with them?”

“No, he didn’t but my daughters found them, and they are bringing them home. I’m just not sure how far they were.”

She tapped her wrist.

“Hazel where are you?”

“We’re on our way mom, about an hour out of town. Sorry we are hurrying but the girls are slowing us down. You went quiet is everything okay?”

“Its fine. I got someplace dark. Target is down but I’ll need blood and time to heal. Are the girls okay?”

Enid could feel the sheriff’s eyes boring into her even in the darkness of the cellar.

“They’re an hour outside town. Your daughters are fine.”

*****

Enid was lying beside Ray. She was still mortal, so her lack of sleep had nothing to do with vampirism. Hazel and Helen had been looking after his daughters. Helen was slowly replacing their memories of the kidnapping with something more pleasant. Enid’s forearm lay across her forehead, and she stared up at the wooden ceiling. She and Ray had been like rabbits the last few days. He was trying to forget what his daughters went through, and Enid wasn’t sure what she was trying to forget but when he was taking his frustration out on her with sex, she wasn’t thinking about whatever it was that she was avoiding. She still didn’t know what it was but tonight the howling of the wind was the only thing she had to distract herself with and it was insufficient. She was hoping she’d get pregnant and delay whatever was ahead of her. It was there on the edge of her perception, and she couldn’t pierce the veil placed in front of it. She fought the urge to wake Ray and feed him another 29th century Viagra. The poor guy was going to die of a heart attack if she kept it up. She lifted his arm off of her and rolled out of bed. She snagged her discarded Atlantean armor and underwear. When she was fully dressed she left the house and stared up at the stary sky. She hadn’t seen the like since she was with Mitena’s tribe. She rubbed her face. She’d already rescued all her children. The question was…

“From what?”

Enid looked up at the sky as if it would answer she sighed and leaned on her palms. She felt cold so she let undeath take her once again and frowned as she looked out at Goldwater. She closed her eyes and remembered her last conversation with God. She shook her head. She cursed him for his inability to give straight answers most of the time. She needed clarity. She was going to get a straight answer if it killed her. She closed her eyes and shifted to her angelic form. She thought take me to somewhere with the answers I seek.

When she opened them again she was in a pure white void that reminded her of the pocket universe she’d collapsed to kill the Black Son. She started to walk and as she did Junpei’s dojo formed around her. Some of her young students were training. Junpei was putting them through their paces. She didn’t recognize most of the students. None seemed to notice her. She closed her eyes and let her form collapse into Enid again. She realized she was in her old uniform wearing her ornate red belt with gold kanji indicating she was a 10th dan black belt. A master. Junpei blinked as she appeared.

“Melanie? You have finally arrived.”

Enid smiled. He bowed deeply to her as did his class. He turned to them and bowed and dismissed them. A Japanese girl lingered, she was perhaps ten. Enid bowed to her and the girl approached.

“Thank you so much for all you did for father.”

Enid smiled and nodded the girl ran off she looked to Junpei whom she hugged tightly.

“Sensei.”

“It took you so long to get here.”

“I am only here in passing, my old friend. I believe I am here because you have another lesson to teach me.”

He motioned for her to sit. Enid sat in the place of a student and folded her legs under herself. Junpei did the same. This wasn’t the Junpei on his death bed. This was him in his prime. He smiled at her.

“So, you have not passed beyond the veil?”

Enid shook her head.

“No Sensei. I have travelled here because there is a piece of my memory missing. A piece of myself missing. I need it back so I can stop something terrible from happening. And Sensei, I’m sorry I lied to you, but my name is not Melanie its En… It is Seraph. I am…”

“You are who believe you should be Seraph-chan.”

Enid bowed forward and touched her hands with her forehead.

“Thank you for the reminder, Sensei.”

“I see the truth now. You lifted the veil from my eyes. I am humbled you still consider me your Sensei.”

Enid bit her low lip and closed her eyes before admitting something she had barely admitted to herself.

“Sensei, you were more than my teacher. You were one of the men I considered to be like a father to me.”

“And you chose me out them all?”

“It seems so.”

“I am humbled once again my student. Tell me what you seek without the vagueness.”

Enid bowed her head again touching her hands with her forehead.

“You are right Sensei. I know there is more to my gift of foresight. I can feel it, but I cannot see what it is trying to tell me. It has always been there…it was far more potent when I was a child…but it has weakened since.”

“Have you meditated on it, student?”

Enid shook her head.

“I cannot concentrate on it.”

“Look into yourself student, why are cannot you not concentrate? What holds you back?”

Enid bit her lower lip as she pondered and when it came to her, she felt shameful for it.

“Fear.”

“What is fear?”

“The enemy of victory.”

He smiled and nodded.

“What did you tell the pilots you trained? Your daughters?”

“That fear will get them killed.”

He nodded.

“Do you know the source of this fear?”

Enid stared at the wooden floor in front of her.

“I am afraid of what I might see.”

“Perhaps as a child you feared your gift?”

“Yes, Sensei.”

“Perhaps think on that, student.”

Enid closed her eyes and thought back to the fear she felt as a child. She opened her eyes and was back on the docks with Maria talking about how their gifts bothered them both. They were twelve. Enid smiled it was good memory. Then she remembered going to Sextus and begging him to remove her gift. She blinked and she was back in the dojo with Junpei. He smiled.

“I see you have found the clarity you seek. Now you must overcome your fear, student.”

Enid took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She searched her mind for the block Sextus placed in it. She found it there. It took the form of a wall of stone. She sensed dark tidings on the other side. She retreated and opened her eyes again.

“I cannot Sensei.”

“You will not. There is a difference student. What is the cost of not facing this fear?”

Enid looked at the wooden floor and pondered further she looked up and met her Sensei’s eyes.

“The end of everything. Hell on Earth….”

“Why are you seeking this now?”

Enid closed her eyes.

“Because it is getting worse. The more demons I kill the more escape. I need… I need to know how to end this, where the nexus is.”

“Are the answers you seek behind the stone wall your father placed, student?”

Enid nodded.

“Yes, sensei”

“Then what do you fear?”

“Behind that wall is also knowledge of my death.”

“Do you fear death student?”

“Yes.”

“Then I say, as you have said many times before: You are already dead.”

Enid frowned at Junpei. She suddenly knew why she came to him. He was the one person she knew would tell her the truth of the matter no matter how much it hurt her. He wasn’t cruel, he was just eternally a teacher.

“Yes, Sensei.”

“What will you do about this? Stay here? Or will you go tear down that wall, student?”

Enid closed her eyes and found the wall in her mind. Before she could hesitate again she ripped it down. The floodgates opened. The infinite possibilities before her. Quickly her mind shifted through millions of them, and she found the only path to victory. Like she used to do when she was a child. Finally, she was who she had always been meant to be. Her enemies did not stand a chance. She knew exactly what they were going to do and when. She also knew she was right. Running around after them and trying to repair the damage was a pointless endeavor. She also knew exactly when and where she would need to be to win. Though still she felt there was something she was missing. She pushed it away assuming it was just mortal failings and opened her eyes. Her once green eyes irises had turned golden. Junpei smiled at her.

“You have no secrets from yourself now, student. You have surpassed me at long last.”

He placed his hands in front of him and bowed touching them with his forehead. Enid had tears in her eyes this was a costly victory at least on a personal level. Sextus had saved her so much pain with one merciful action, but now was the time to put away childish things. Like a fear of what was to come. She stood up and bowed to Junpei and then pulled him in for a tight hug.

“Thank you. I needed you.”

“It has been my pleasure to teach you.”

“It has been my pleasure to be your student.”

Junpei held her arms and looked down at her.

“I wish you could stay with us but I sense you need to return.”

Enid nodded and bowed one last time as she was about to leave she had a thought and sought out one last friend. She was happy to see that Allison was here. She was sitting on a blanket with her mother and father, they were having a picnic by a lake. Her eyes went wide when she saw Enid and she rushed to her.

“Enid?”

Enid smiled at her and pulled her in for a tight hug.

“You’re here! I thought… I’d never see you again.”

Enid smiled at her.

“I’m just visiting my love.”

“You’re not dead?”

Enid shook her head.

“No, my love. My mother saved me. But I couldn’t make it home. I’m so glad you’re here with the people you love. You found love after me, right?”

Allison nodded.

“She’s off doing something, so I decided to spend time with my parents. How are you?”

“I am…”

Enid sighed and released her true form and Allison stumbled back. All eyes in the park focused on the angel in their midst. Enid let her form collapse once again.

“You’re an angel?”

Enid nodded.

“I didn’t know…when we were together. I just I wanted to see you again. It is selfish of me to interrupt your…paradise.”

Allison shook her head and grabbed Enid’s hands.

“No. I am at peace knowing you didn’t die alone.”

“And I won’t. But you won’t see me again my love. This is not where my end lies.”

“Surely an angel…can’t die.”

“We only change.”

Enid put her hands on Allison’s cheeks.

“Farewell my love. You have never left my heart.”

Allison hugged Enid tightly. With a wave and a blown kiss Enid vanished as quickly as she’d arrived, and she appeared in Isis’s ship.