Chapter 4

"Once I rose above the noise and confusion, just to get a glimpse beyond the illusion, I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high!," Idin sung to himself.

"Idin your not even paying attention," Lilith said.

"Sorry got this song stuck in my head, that ever happen to you?," Idin glanced back at Lilith.

"No," Lilith said.

"Come on you don't remember those tribal songs, remember the river people, the ones that did that harvest festival to you, thought we all were gods?," Idin asked.

"I remember the songs," Lilith said.

"Pretty catchy," Idin shook his head.

They both sat in the forest Idin had conjured, meditating, both sitting in the lotus position.

"Idin, you are supposed to be channeling your energy, if you can do this you can get back, and when you get back you will have access to it like you should of all this time, instead of the instinctual grasping at it on accident," Lilith sighed

"I don't even know what that means," Idin said.

"You should have powers on par to a celestial," Lilith said.

"Like being able to kill a high level demon?," Idin asked.

"Yes, that would be one of them," Lilith said.

"been there done that," Idin said.

"Idin don't you want to see your daughter, or your wife?," Lilith asked.

Idin sighed.

"You're right, I do, this is all very much like those cartoons Sharon used to watch when she was little," Idin said.

"what?," Lilith asked.

"Those foreign ones the Asian cartoons, they always do that power up thing, where the main guy is weak so he goes away and trains to get more powerful, or are you not big on cartoons?," Idin asked.

"Shut up Idin," Lilith said.

San Diego.

"Carry on my wayward son, for there'll be peace when you are done," I sang into the microphone.

Shannon was playing on the guitar, and Kei was banging on the drums, we had taken a nap Shannon and I after sun rise, when we woke we found Kei making us lunch, we had wrangled her into playing rock band.

"Damn," Kei said looking at the broken drum sticks.

"You did it again?!," I said pausing the game.

"Sorry," Kei said.

"She cracked the drum controller too, look at that," Shannon was saying looking at the crack in the plastic.

"I thought Jen had all the electronics Sister proofed?" Kei said looking at the cracked controller.

"Kei why would she think about beefing up my video game systems?," I asked.

Kei shrugged throwing the drum sticks into the trash.

"Well that's enough games for me, who wants to go shopping?," Kei asked.

I raised my hand, Shannon shrugged.

"Alright two to one, we go," Kei said getting up.

We all gathered our coats and head out, we rode the elevator in silence, Kei broke it with an awkward question.

"So Lizzy, why do your lips smell like Shannon?," Kei asked.

I groaned and Shannon blushed, now that Shannon knew our secret Kei was being way more opened about her abilities, Lillian had assigned her to bring Shannon up to speed.

"It was a misunderstanding," I said.

"yeah," Shannon muttered.

"Oh," Kei said as we exited into the parking garage.

We walked to Kei's infiniti convertible, we all got in and she lowered the top, Shannon was sitting in the back, Kei looked back at her.

"Did Lizzy tell you about Enore when she told you her father's story?," Kei asked.

I had left that part out, having tried to summarize a lot of history for Shannon, as we drove Kei told the whole story, from when she first met Idin until Enore's death, by the end I could see tears going down Kei's cheek.

"What I am trying to say Shannon, is we daughters live a long time, there is plenty of time for everything, and we don't conform to what ever puritanical upbringing you may have had." Kei said.

I remembered seeing all the crucifixes around Shannon's house, and I wondered why I hadn't put two and two together about that, Kei was insightful when she wanted to be, and wasn't playing the role of bad ass.

We arrived at the mall, even Shannon seemed excited, we wondered several shops browsing, none of us really intent on buying anything, I had a credit card Mom let me use for shopping, she even let me buy Shannon stuff as long as I didn't get carried away, Kei had wondered off while we looked around one of the larger department stores.

"bitch alert," Shannon said ducking behind a rack.

I stood where I was looking around, sure enough it was Jillian and her goon squad, they hadn't seen me yet but they were walking right toward us, I continued to browse, when they spotted me they came right at me.

"Look at the trash they allow in here now," Jillian said to one of her goons.

I ignored her looking at the clothes in front of me.

"Oh and look the her little lover is hiding behind the rack," Jillian and her goons laughed

I took a deep breath and released in slowly counting to ten.

"Well you know the men's sections over there, it should be better suited to you two dykes," Jillian giggled.

My hands moved on there one accord, I grabbed Jillian by the throat and pulled her toward me until her face was level with mine, she was struggling to get out of my grip.

"you ever, call me and my friend that again, and I will scar you in ways that will make people cringe when they look at you," I said calmly into her face.

"Are we clear?," I asked.

One of her goons had pulled out pepper spray and held it up to my face.

"Let her go bitch or ill mace you," She said trembling.

"That's not mace, it is pepper spray, huge difference." I said.

"What?," She said looking at the bottle.

As she looked my free hand snapped out and grabbed her hand, I turned it so the spray was aimed back at her, she started to whimper as I twisted her hand.

"Jillian, are we clear?," I Said calmly.

Jillian's eyes looked terrified and she nodded quickly, I let them all go, the genius with the pepper spray couldn't let good enough alone, she raised it to spray me, My foot flew out and took her in the stomach, her friends ditched her and ran as she lay crying on the floor, I took another deep breath, I saw she had dropped the pepper spray, I picked it up and tossed it to her on the floor.

"Next time, don't give your opponent a warning, just attack." I said.

"Come on Shannon, lets go." I said.

Shannon nodded hesitantly, we both walked out of the department store quickly, I glanced over and saw Jillian talking to mall security, crap I had to find Kei, as if thinking about her summoned her Kei appeared by our side.

"Kei I think I might be in trouble," I said.

I went on to explain what happened, and how I had lost my temper, Kei simply nodded and marched us over to mall security, she sat me and Shannon down.

"Do not say a word to anyone," Kei said as she marched into the office like she owned the place.

Shannon and I waited nervously for awhile, eventually I recognized Jillian's Mom arrive at the office, we waited some more, it seemed like forever but Kei stepped out looking at Jillian's Mom and the Mall cop.

"I would hate to have to press charges for a hate crime, as you can see from the video Elizabeth was responding to a threat, and that child with the mace, that was just irresponsible." Kei said walking out.

"Come one girls," Kei said.

We all quickly walked out Kei leading us out.

"What did you tell them?," Shannon asked.

"I told them you were a victim of a hate crime, luckly the camera couldn't make you guys out, only the sound was very clear, the name calling and the mace, well lets say they would hate to have a lawsuit on there hands," Kei said.

"oh, thanks," I said.

"Still Lizzy, your temper needs work, Your father took years to hone his, I remember how quickly he used to react to injustice, over time he learned to reign that in a bit." Kei said as we reached her car.

"How long did that take him?," I asked.

"2, 3 thousand years tops," Kei said as she started her car.

"Great," I said.

Sharon.

Sharon had only gotten a few hours of rest before she was called back to the office, she was still very tired, across from her sat a very handsome FBI agent, one Michael Walters, he tossed a file on to her desk.

"You see Captain Jones, because of the ahh unusual nature of the crimes I investigate, the FBI gives me a long leash, and right now I am tracking some one who I believe may be in town." Michael said pointing at the file.