Julie stood alone for a moment looking at the scene in the family kitchen. A lot of it had come over the odd things that had happened over the past twenty four hours. Her mother had gone out for a walk saying she needed some air at the same time her boyfriend arrived so they could do their homework together. Then while doing her homework she felt the sudden urge to kiss her boyfriend and devour his soul. As she began to kiss him, she had felt a pain her head and spine as she grew two small horns and then a long heat tipped tail. When she realized what she was being urged to do, she pushed herself away from her boyfriend and began to grip herself in fear. Then she learned that she was half demon when her mother and an angel returned. A lot of it was too much, as she had remembered being raised quite well, and to be a good person. A part of her couldn't fully cope with all of that.
Her sleep had been uneasy and she'd found things uncomfortable when she got dressed. The tail she'd grown rubbed against her underwear and her jeans and it felt a bit uncomfortable. It was all inhuman and she knew she couldn't go anywhere outside her home looking like something out of her mother's Castle & Daemons card game. Her mother had promised to teach her how to hide her inhuman side, but there were still things that hadn't been told, as she felt a sharp tug on her tail which made her scream. She had turned to find her ten year old brother, Tom, holding her infant sister, Cassie, and her five year old sister, Mary standing nervously behind him. She gave her protest and then had her mother arrive with the Angel from the night before as they began to explain things.
The explanation didn't get things going much better when a demonic imp burst through the window and attacked toward her and her siblings. She raised an arm to shield herself when an aura of white energy surrounded herself and her siblings while Angelica had protected her father. When the imp bounced off her shield, Julie watched as her mother grab and restore it to what appeared to be a male boy. A lot of it only left questions in Julie's mind as things began to calm down.
"Aliza?" Angelica asked toward Janith.
"A demon imp... and one I'd consider to be rather crazy... who has served the demon council in trying to corrupt human souls to ensure their conversion into demons... though obviously weaker than those of us born into a demon's line... or in your case, Angelica, an Angel's line," Janith answered, "I'd thought you knew this already...?"
"My assigned mission was to observe you and help you if you were looking for redemption," Angelica explained, "and while God will be most overjoyed that you have... I'm afraid I was not given any information on any other potential demons that might be out there."
Janith sighed heavily, "I feared something like this would happen... not just my... my status a demon revealed to my family... who I love dearly... but that my side in the war against God will come looking for me... wanting to know why I gave gathering souls for them... wanting to know why I quit their side..." Janith turned to Angelica, "why I switched to your side in the war..."
"So this Aliza is here to take you back to them?" Angelica asked.
"And likely punish me," Janith replied, and looked to her four children, Tom and Mary actually looking quite fearful at her and at what invaded their home, which made her shed tears. She loved her children, loved them dearly, just as much as she loved William. It hurt her to see them threatened by her past. "I'm sorry..."
"Is there a way you know to stop Aliza?" Angelica asked.
"If we can catch her while she doesn't have too many corrupted children, that should be easy," Janith answered, "She doesn't have that much raw power and has to obey a different set of rules from those I'd need to follow, for example... but the fact that she can create an army of imps and can be unpredictable making her tough to deal with... not while protecting my family and likely any others at the same time."
"Is there anything that can be done?" spoke Julia's boyfriend from the doorway, "stop her... or get away?"
"My family won't be safe here," Janith spoke, "Aliza will return. She may be crazy... but she isn't stupid. She'll find and create more imps and study what is going on and then attack with sufficient force to capture you... kill me..." she whimpered "... and raise my children so that when their abilities manifest... as Julie's did... they would side against humanity..."
"You mean we're going to turn into demons too?" Mary asked, sounding scared.
Janith nodded, "yes... but I've found that good and evil is more about our choices and who we are rather than WHAT we are."
Janith turned to Angelica, "This was my fault... I should have done more to make sure they couldn't find my family."
Angelica didn't say anything.
"If you can get my family away... as well as the boy and my daughter's boyfriend... I will surrender to her," Janith said weakly, "They'll give up looking for you once they have me."
"Jane..." William began, "They could kill you!"
"They will kill me," Janith answered, "but that'd be better then me seeing all of you suffer..."
"Such sacrifice is not necessary," Angelica finally spoke, "I've pledged to protect you all. I may not be a Guardian Angel or an Archangel... but I am not unskilled in combating demons... and I can call for more divine assistance."
"That would take time," Janith warned, "Time we don't have... Julie will need some instruction with her powers... both to disguise herself and to make sure she doesn't have any accidents with the one she loves... but Aliza won't allow for that time to pass. She may pause to reassess things after what happened here, but if I start training Julia and she notices... she'll attack in force and by the time she arrives here again... she will have corrupted enough children to overpower even you and I..."
"You can change them back, right?" Wesely asked.
"That depends on how long the child has been corrupted," Janith said with a sigh, "Aliza's transformative spells of corruption depend on the child willingly joining in the game...The trade off of her corruption is that their human skin and such are shed and the new form emerges from within..."
"Human demon hunters and churchmen can restore them," Angelica commented, "there are records of it in Heaven."
"Provided they find the shed skin and get the imp to willingly put it back on and reject the corruption," Janith answered, "Not easily done. I was able to get around it because I as a full succubus have substantially more power than any imp Aliza could create... as an individual... and am somewhat stronger than Aliza, herself. Aliza didn't likely know that I'd switched sides as it were and thus didn't warn her imps to be wary of a possible "hostile" reaction from me. She will warn the imps she still has... and will create... to be more careful... and not to attack until she has sufficient numbers."
"Which means... if we end up with a head on battle... even if we win and subdue Aliza and her imps... some may have been imps long enough that they can't be forcibly changed back... not all the way... not be me," Janith then finished after a short pause.
"I may be able to assist in restoring them," Angelica spoke with some confidence, "we all have our sides... but in the end... good has always triumphed over evil."
"The question is where is the end, though?" William spoke up, "I believe in God and will do so until I die... but many of the historians who have looked at the Bible believe that the human authors expected the "end" to be soon."
"Human misinterpretation of what was told to them," Angelica sighed, "and I didn't say this would be easy. Good will triumph... but you must have faith... perhaps even the faith of a child that things will be better and the will to persevere as Job did."
There was a collective sigh before Angelica finished.
"In the meantime... it would be advisable that we do relocate for the moment," Angelica spoke, "Your home will be a target, yes..."
"Where would we go?" William asked, "My job won't let us live there... and neither would the school..."
"On this Earth... your best chance is the church and claim sanctuary," Angelica answered, "I can consecrate the ground it stands on..."
"But I wouldn't be able to enter," Janith spoke, "Likely neither would my children. It'd protect William, Julie's boyfriend, and this boy... but it would then force any demon or being with demonic blood in their veins out..."
"It isn't the blood," Angelica answered, "It's the intent. Consecration and specific wards have blocked demons from entering churches not because of what they are, but because the wards can sense their intent to either do structural damage to the church or to try and attack God through it. You, Janith... by returning to the faithful... the consecration of the ground wouldn't prevent you from entering. You would be protected... and that would give us time to assemble a plan to stop Aliza."