text: Rochelle huddled in the back of the van and answered Hikaru's question, "My dorm. Vera Gudgel Hall. We need to get the book."
  
  "Right!" Hikaru nodded, the van bouncing as she sped across the parking lot.
  
  Rochelle peered back out the window at the breach in the side of the University Bookstore that Hikaru had torn open with her mind. Grief threatened to overwhelm her. Bill, her Master and husband, had dived into the Hellgate after Cynthia, and then all those filthy Lemures had boiled out. She had peered into the future, the gift Bill had bestowed upon her, and had seen their deaths if they had stayed.
  
  So they had fled, leaving Bill and Cynthia to the mercies of Hell.
  
  "He'll be fine," she told herself, trying to peer into the future and witness their reunion, but her gift only let her see a few minutes at most. "Please be fine, Master." She teetered at the abyss of guilt.
  
  Juanita — her and Bill's wife — hugged her. "He will be," the Hispanic coed whispered. "Our husband will return to us."
  
  "What happened in there?" Hikaru demanded. "Where's Bill?"
  
  The Japanese coed, and Bill's third love, had been waiting with the van. She had exhausted her telekinetic powers by ripping open the massive breach in the bookstore's wall. The very breach they had just fled out of and Sister Mariam vainly held to buy them time to escape.
  
  "He tried to save Cynthia," Juanita answered. "He threw himself into Hell for her."
  
  "Oh, no," the Japanese coed moaned. "What are we supposed to do?"
  
  "We need Sophia," Rochelle said, gathering her resolve. "We have to save the Seraph. She'll know what to do."
  
  "And that's why we're going to your dorm?"
  
  "There's a book we need in my room, the Handbuch der Dämonen und der Engel. It talks about all this crap."
  
  "Right," Hikaru nodded.
  
  Rochelle peered into the future to find the path that would see them safely to the dorm. It seemed clear. None of the Lemures would threaten the van in the few minutes it would take them to reach her dorm.
  
  "Where's Sister Mariam?" Hikaru asked.
  
  More grief filled Rochelle. "She stayed to hold the breach, buying us time to escape." That's why their future was so clear. Sister Mariam, wielding the silver sword Bill had given her, would hold the breach in the bookstore's wall and stop the flood of Demons from pouring out into the street.
  
  For a few minutes.
  
  "Well, are we going back for her?"
  
  "No," Rochelle whispered. "She's trading her life for ours."
  
  "Fuck," Bev muttered. She dismissed her silver sword and slumped against Officer Mindy. Both women had been gifted swords by Bill.
  
  "What's going on?" Liu asked. She was Southeast Asian, her olive face twisted with confusion. She and six other women, all members of PLU's lacrosse team, had been turned into fighters by Daevia. When Bill had led the attack on the bookstore, the lacrosse team had defended it, enslaved by the Succuba, and been defeated, their chains broken, setting them free of Daevia's control. When they had fled the bookstore, the lacrosse players had hopped into the van with them.
  
  Five of lacrosse players nodded, adding their questions to Liu's. Only Reggie didn't answer. She was still unconscious from the brick that had struck her head.
  
  "You were controlled by a Succuba," Rochelle explained. "She made you into her slaves."
  
  "She has half the campus enslaved," Juanita added. "Or maybe most of it."
  
  "Listen, girls," Bev said, clapping her hands — she was the Lacrosse team captain. Like her players, she had been Daevia's slave, but Bill had freed her and Officer Mindy back at Our Lady of Heaven, the church they had sought refuge at this morning. "That bitch tossed Cynthia into Hell, and Bill, our only hope of getting out of this mess, jumped in after her."
  
  "That guy?" asked Erica, her hand going to her throat. "The one who freed me?"
  
  "Yep," Bev nodded. "So we're going step-up and help Rochelle, Juanita, and Hikaru get him back. Because were the PLU Lions, and we don't quit!"
  
  The lacrosse players roared. It was so corny, Rochelle almost laughed, but their passion gave her pause. Without Bill's love to replenish them, she and Juanita would slowly burn through their powers like Hikaru already had. Once consumed, she could no longer peer into the future and Juanita would lose her empathic powers. Having six more allies, seven if Reggie recovered, would go a long way in helping out.
  
  She glanced at the unconscious Black woman, blood staining her forehead.
  
  "Maybe you should touch Reggie," Rochelle suggested Juanita. "She still hasn't woken up."
  
  "Oh, yeah," she nodded, blinking in realization. "I can heal people."
  
  "Did you forget?"
  
  "Kinda."
  
  She laid her hands on Reggie's dark skin, concentrating. "Oh, my. She took quite the crack to the head. Lots of internal bleeding and swelling in her brain."
  
  It was the only way to stop her, Rochelle thought, the abyss yawning wider before her — she couldn't let herself fall into that blackness. "Please save her," she whispered, sudden tears brimming in her eyes. This morning, she had accidentally killed the security guard, Bobby, with Bill's dagger. She had thought it would just stun him, but Bill's weapon had been a regular dagger in her hand and had buried into the guard's throat.
  
  Bobby had just been another slave of Daevia. Another victim.
  
  "It will take most of my energy," Juanita answered. "We might need it."
  
  "Please." She teetered, about to fall into despair.
  
  Her wife gave Rochelle a sad smile. "For you."
  
  She let out her breath in relief, and reached over and placed her hand on Juanita's shoulder. She had known Juanita for years, sharing a dorm together, but in the last few hours she had grown so close to Juanita, the same way she had with Bill. The Hispanic woman had wormed into her heart and joined with the love she felt for their husband.
  
  Juanita concentrated, and then she moaned in pain, clutching her head. Juanita's gift from Bill was empathy, and it let her manipulate a person's emotional state, but it also let her take their pain and heal their bodies. This afternoon, Rochelle had been shot by Mindy — when the Native American cop had been one of Daevia's slaves — and Juanita had healed her from the brink of death.
  
  "I'm here," Rochelle whispered, clutching Juanita's hand.
  
  Juanita whimpered, almost crushing Rochelle's hand as she squeezed. Sweat broke out on her nut-brown skin, matting her honey-brown hair. The swelling on Reggie's head shrank, deflating like a tire going flat. The torn wound mended, and then all she was left with was flawless, ebony skin. Reggie convulsed, her eyes shot open, and the Black girl sat up.
  
  "What the fuck!" she gasped.
  
  Juanita slumped against Rochelle, her breathing slowed.
  
  "Thank you," Rochelle whispered and gave her a kiss on the lips.
  
  "You're welcome," Juanita answered. Rochelle gave her another kiss. "That took a lot of power, but I have a little left. Enough to incapacitate a few people."
  
  "Who are you?" the Black lacrosse player demanded, her naked breasts swaying with her exuberance.
  
  "Juanita."
  
  "You saved me!" she exclaimed and crushed Juanita in a hug.
  
  "You're welcome. We need your help now."
  
  Reggie broke the hug, looked around to see most of her lacrosse team crammed in the van, all naked, then nodded her head. "I don't know what the fuck is going on, but you can count me in!"
  
  "Good!" Bev exclaimed. "Because we're going to kick some ass and take some names. Lions!"
  
  Reggie roared, and Rochelle let out a small laugh.
  
  "Sorry," she said, trying to stop her giggling. "But it's a little corny."
  
  "All available units, converge on Garfield and Pacific Avenue," a woman's voice crackled from Mindy's police radio. "We're getting reports of a pack of wild animals terrifying the area around the University Bookstore. Be advised, the animals are quite vicious and have caused several injuries."
  
  "The Lemures," Rochelle sighed. "Sister Mariam has fallen."
  
  "Lemures?" Reggie asked.
  
  "The lowest form of Demons. And they're flooding out of the Hellgate Daevia opened."
  
  "Shit," Reggie muttered. "And that's why you need our help?"
  
  "Yep."
  
  "All right. I remember that bitch. Let's ruin her day and kick some ass."
  
  "Yeah!" the other Lacrosse player shouted.
  
  "I'm glad you're all pumped!" Hikaru shouted. The van lurched to a stop. "Because we're here!"