Chapter One
Sarah awoke to the cool, summer morning breeze that was pouring in through her open bedroom window. She could hear the faint melodic chirps from the small city birds. Her long, thin arms reached up high in the cool air and her sun-kissed color legs stiffened as she stretched away a bit of her morning grogginess.
Cold air attacked her bare skin as she yanked her heavy comforter from her warm body. The cool, beige carpet nipped at the bottom of her feet. She quickly leapt from her bedside to her large wooden dresser and pulled out a few undergarments, a pair of skin-tight black jeans, and an alien t-shirt. She shoved in the drawers and darted down the hallway of the Institute, trying to escape the cold.
When she found the bathroom she closed herself inside and turned on the shower. She waited until the water was hot and the bathroom window was coated with a foggy cloud of steam to strip off her clothes. When it was she slipped from her hoodie and underwear and hopped into the warm shower. She wrapped herself up in one of the plush, bleach-white towels once she was clean.
"Sass? You in there?" Jasmine, her best-friend and Nephilim sister, called politely from the hallway.
Sarah was called Sass ever since she could remember. It was one of the only things that she had that was a reminder of her parents. She didn't know how her nickname came to be, it was just always there. Besides her nickname, her mother and father gave her a witchlight stone that they said was very special before they left for their trip to Idris. The trip that they never returned from.
Sarah finished wrapping her hair up in the towel to dry before answering, "Yes, I'm drying off right now,"
"Okay, I'll be down the hall," Jasmine replied, her words were followed by the sound of her pitter-pattering footsteps.
Sass struggled to pull on her black skinny jeans over her long and scrawny feet. She stretched the neck hole of her t-shirt over her towel hat and over her lengthy torso. Sarah applied her basic face makeup and then brushed mascara onto her eyelashes. She slapped down the light switch as she left the bathroom. She was met by Jaz when she made it to the end of the hallway.
"You shower quick," Sass said as she began trudging down the grand staircase that led to the entry of the Institute.
"Not really, I just don't spend time putting on makeup," Jaz says as she follows her down the white marble steps.
Jaz made a good point. She didn't ever wear makeup. Her hair was always naturally beautiful and no matter what she did to mess it up, it would lay back perfectly across her shoulders and stopped at the mid of her back. Her face was always beautiful too. It didn't matter if she had acne, cuts, or even food on her face, it was still pretty. She had the type of beauty that boys dreamt of and girls envied. Jasmine of course was oblivious to it.
"Hey, I'm going into the city, would you like to accompany me?" Sass asked as she sat on the last step of the staircase and slid her feet into her black vans.
"Of course, I was going to grab some food from the kitchen. Would you like me to grab you something?" Jaz asked as she finished tying on her navy blue converse.
"Please. Peaches would be awesome," Sass said and with that Jaz disappeared down the hallway and into the kitchen.
Sass swiftly grabbed her black backpack and forest green sweatshirt that had a triforce on it from the dark colored, metal coat hanger that was drilled into the wall. She bent over and let gravity unravel her towel-hat. She hung up the towel on the hook and pulled her Legend of Zelda sweatshirt on over herself. When she stood back up, she slid the rough black straps onto each of her shoulders.
Jasmine reappeared with several, plump peaches in hand and a yellow bag of potato chips. She smiled as she unzipped Sass' backpack and gently set the fragile food inside. She zipped it back up and then snagged her brown, leather messenger-style bag and slung it over her shoulder. They both entered the rickety, old elevator. Sass pressed the down button on the panel and it jolted as it slowly began to descend. Sarah grabbed her seraph blade and stele from her bag. She slid her dagger into her waistband and her stele into her sweatshirt's front pocket. The elevator came to a painfully screeching stop and the whole thing shook as it hit ground level.
"We definitely have to get that stupid thing fixed," Sass said as she and Jaz filed out of the elevator and into the old, abandoned church.
The church was it's usual dusty, dark, and creepy self. Not a soul had sat on the pews in no less than thirty years. There was a thick layer of dust on everything. The stained glass windows were dirty and some were even broken.
"Christ, does it have to be this creepy every time we come through here?" Jaz hisses as she gazes in horror around herself.
A bird flies into the church through a hole in a window that was broken by a rock that had been plunged through it. It hopped around for a few moments, surveying the dark and dense room before it nestled into it's grassy bed nearby.
"Let's get the heck out of here," Sass said as she started for the two large wooden doors that led to the empty neighborhood of south Manhattan.
She pushed open the doors and held them for Jaz who was close behind. Cool air pushed their dark, damp hair from their foreheads and swept it onto their backs. They walked down the path from the church to the sidewalk. The church was one of the last buildings before the cul-de-sac looped back into one road and would take you out of the neighborhood.
Sarah and Jasmine made it to the subway and hopped onto the train to 3rd Street before the doors closed. They both were happy to have made it onto the train but it was crammed with people. The two were forced to stand due to lack of seats. They found a thick metal pole to hold on to before the train jolted forward. Sass pulled two peaches from her bag. She tossed one to Jaz and kept the other for herself. By the time the train stopped at 3rd Street, their hands were drenched in sticky, fruit juices.
The two leapt off the cramped car as soon as the doors opened up and jogged up the lightly colored stone steps that led to ground level. Jasmine was rushing to keep up with her long-legged friend. She panted, "Do you know what time Hodge wants us home?"
"I would assume dinner time but I could be wrong," Sass says as she takes a deep breath of the early morning city air.
Page Break
Hodge paced around the kitchen worriedly. He had always told the girls to be back by six o'clock but last night he told them to be home a little earlier because they were going to have company. Either they had forgotten or simply didn't care. Hodge shook the thought of his two students being careless. It just wasn't them. He came to the conclusion that they had run into an unexpected issue.
"These girls are giving me gray hair," He sighed as he plopped onto a wooden bar stool next to the one that was being occupied by the Institute's sleeping cat, Church.
Earlier, at about five-thirty, Sass and Jaz were heading home from 3rd street. They passed down an alley and a few trash cans knocked into each other and into the dumpsters and eventually ended up spilling garbage all over in the alley. Sass and Jaz quickly glamoured themselves.
Of course, they both stopped dead in their tracks. Jasmine stared down the alley and then looked to Sarah. Sarah could see the fear that her best friend's eyes were desperately trying to hide. Sass wasn't the least bit scared. She had seen it all; werewolves, vamps, warlocks, fairies, you name it.
"Let's go check it out," Sass said as she let the straps of her backpack fall off her shoulders and her bag fell to the ground outside the alleyway.
Jaz followed Sass as she stealthily crept to the back of the alley. Sass' heart pounded in her chest so hard that she was surprised no one else had heard it thumping. Quietly she plucked her seraph blade from her waistband.
Sarah paused before the trash cans and two dumpsters. She looked back to Jasmine, her face was hardened and unreadable. Sass held up three fingers and brought them back into a fist as the seconds slipped away. She sprung to the other side of the trash canisters and large green dumpsters.
Nothing.
"Huh, I really expected there to be something…" Sass said as her arm that was wielding a blade fell limply to her side.
Everything was silent. It was as if everything in the world had paused except them. Sass looked around and saw nothing. Jasmine reached into her pocket to retrieve her seraph blade as she said, "Is it just me or did it get insanely quiet?"
A glob of acidic, green goop splatted onto Sass' left shoulder. She screamed in pain as she tried her best to get the burning slime off of herself without touching it.
"They're above us!" Jasmine shouted as she pointed to a Ravener demon that was crawling down the side of one of the apartment walls in the alley.
Three raveners jumped down from the apartment buildings and surrounded the two girls. Their bodies were coated in a thick layer of black and green acidic slime. The slime jiggled and dripped from them as they fell. One of the raveners screeched at them and taunted them with it's barbed, scorpion-like tail. The two other mimicked the first ravener. The first ravener was clearly their leader.
"Someone summoned these, Sassy," Jaz said as she pressed her back to Sass'.
Sarah's heart sank as the thought of a warlock purposely summoning demons to capture them. She pushed away the thought and let anger flow through her veins. She tightened her grip on the hilt of her seraph blade.
A ravener thrust itself at Sass. She curled into a ball and somersaulted out of the way of the ravener's dangerous acid covered body. She popped back up onto her feet and thrusted her silver blade into the mosquito-scorpion looking monster's side. She twisted the blade in it's flesh and it cried out in pain. She pulled the dagger out as it twisted away. Before it could get away she charged at it and with a devastating blow she sliced into two of the beast's legs, cutting them off cleanly. Neon green acid spewed from its wounds.
Sass turned to see Jaz dodging the stingers of the two raveners that were attacking her. She sprinted across the alley to assist her friend. One of the raveners used it's slimy leg and kicked the seraph blade from Jaz's hand and sent it skidding through the alley and into the mound of trash.
Sarah ran to aid her weaponless friend, but the other raveners swung it's body into her, knocking the wind out of her and throwing her into the brick wall of one the apartment buildings. She moaned and held her left arm close to her body. Her arm was pulsing painfully. Her breaths wavered, but found the courage to go back into battle even though her arm was surely broken.
She gasped for air as she struggled to stand up. Once she was up on her feet she scooped up her seraph blade from the ground. As she stood up right, her sight was invaded by darkness and she became dizzy. She fell against the brick wall, scraping her cheek on the rough material. Sass pushed off the wall and stumbled back into the battle over to Jaz to help as much as she possibly could.
A ravener slashed it's piercing needle down over it's head at Sarah. With all of her strength she swung up in the air with her dagger, slicing into the stinger's flesh. The stinger went flying through the air and acid sprayed out of what was left of the tail. Sass was showered by the acid. She screamed and fell to the ground. She curled into a ball and rocked herself as the acid scorched her body.
Jasmine turned to see Sarah accepting defeat and she knew that it was up to her. Jaz darted away from the ravener and frantically pried Sarah's seraph blade from her hand to use herself.
The ravener that's tail was wounded, curled up like a spider would if you hit it with a shoe. It's legs were bent and it laid grotesquely on the warm pavement. The last ravener charged at Jaz. It was in a rage it wasn't going to stop until either it met it's fate or they did. It's spiny tail was cocked and ready to finish the fight with a single blow.
Jaz was ready to end the fight as well. She spun in one quick circle, letting the hilt of her weapon slide from her fingers. It flew graciously through the air and stopped when it embedded itself in the ugly neck of the demonic creature. It stumbled back and it's legs gave out. It made a hideous noise and then it took it's last miserable breath.
Jaz watched as it stopped breathing. She collapsed to her knees when she knew for sure it was dead. A wave of relief washed over her. Beads of sweat dotted her forehead and her hands were covered in cold sweat. She felt the exhaustion seep into her bones and fuse into her muscles. Jaz looked to see Sass, quivering with pain. She wasn't screaming anymore but by the look of her expression, she wanted to. Jaz crawled over to Sass, scraping her knees on the rocky pavement.
"They're gone, Sassy," Jaz said as she started to pull off the sweatshirt Sarah was wearing that was soaked in painful acid and sweat.
"It hurts so bad," Sass said as she pulled her head out of her favorite sweatshirt.
"I know Sassy. If we just make it home, we can heal you," Jaz said as she pulled Sarah to her feet.
Sarah looked around for her stele but it was no where in sight. She had guessed that it was lost in the fight. She slowly made her way to the street and picked her bag up out of the front of the alley. Her cheeks felt raw because of the tears that had stained them. She pulled her arm close to her body and examined the hideous purple mark that covered it.
The two tried their hardest to rush down Harrison Boulevard to 3rd Street. They stumbled down the subway stairs and waited for the seven-twenty-five train car to arrive. When it did they crammed into it and searched desperately for a seat. They were standing by a metal pole when it started moving. Sass' vision darkened again and she slumped against the metal pole. Jasmine grabbed her and held her up as much as she could. Jaz helped Sass walk all the way back to the Institute. That was one obstacle that she had passed over but her next obstacle was to deal with Hodge. She knew that he was going to be furious, especially because they were having company…