Chapter 2

Thankfully the next morning was a Saturday. During the night Katherine and Lisa had managed to put up magical barriers around the house. It will stop weaker demons from getting in and give them sufficient warnings about stronger ones. Even though Lisa had created the barriers herself, she couldn't sleep very well. At six in the morning she was walking down stairs towards the kitchen. Much to her surprise, Christina had already beaten her to it, and was sitting at the breakfast table with a pot of coffee and her laptop open in front of her. 'Chris.' Lisa said, making her jump.

'Jesus Lisa.' Christina covered her heart with her hand. 'You scared me.'

'Sorry, why are you up?' Lisa asked, taking a mug from the cupboard and pouring herself a coffee before sitting with her sister.

'There's too much work to do on this case. I have to go down to the foster agency at lunch time so I want to be prepared.'
'But it's Saturday and a very aggressive demon attacked us last night.' Lisa said.

'I know that, but I can't put my normal cases on hold for magical issues, you know that.' Lisa sighed, but looked up when she felt the room get colder. There was someone standing in their kitchen. A girl.

'Chris?' Lisa asked. 'Your case, is the girl blonde?'

'Yeah, her name is Sam. Why?' Christina stopped working and looked at her sister.

'Do you have a picture of her?' Lisa asked. Christina opened one of the files and handed it to Lisa who looked. A blonde girl with short hair, wearing her school uniform and dirty red converse. 'Okay, she's in the kitchen.'

'Seriously?' Christina looked around nervously. 'She wants to talk to you.' Lisa said.

'No, Lisa, I can't use the testimony of a ghost!'

'It's not like that, Chris. She just want's to say thank you.' Lisa smiled.

'Oh, well it's the least I can do.' Christina said to nobody in particular. 'I'm going to put him away for life, you have my word.'

'She want's to make sure he never has any more foster children.'

'Don't worry, no way am I going to let that happen.' Christina said as Lisa sat beside her.

'Is she gone?'

'Yeah, she's gone.' Lisa said. 'Did you go and view her body?'

'I did, on my way home last night.'

'She must have followed you home.' Lisa smiled. 'Smart.'

'What did she, I mean, did she look like...' Christina wondered.

'She looked normal, like a kid. Only the ones with trouble moving on look as they did when they died.'

'Good, that's good.' Christina sighed, leaning her head in her hands.

'She looked like that because she knows you're here fighting for her. She's already moved on Chris, trust me.'

'Okay, thanks Lise.' Lisa hugged her shoulders and kissed her head.

'Don't work too hard, it's the weekend.' Lisa called over her shoulder as she left the room.

Later that morning Dani and Lauren were flipping through the family book. It logged all of the demons, spirits and creatures the Cimorelli family had ever faced. They were trying to find one resembling the guy from last night. 'What about this guy?' Dani said. 'Big, tattoos.'

'Yeah but it also says he turns into a mist if he needs to escape, he could have done that last night.'

'What about...' Dani flipped through some more pages. 'Wait, this is him.' She turned the book back to Lauren.

'That's him alright. Low-level, normally muscle for hire, can shoot energy from his hands. Message everyone.' Dani did just that, and within five minutes they were all siting in the living room.

'What have you found?' Amy asked.

'We found our demon.' Lauren said, putting the book on the coffee table. 'He doesn't have a name, but there are hundreds of him.'

'What do you mean, hundreds of him?' Katherine asked.

'Exactly that, they all look the same. Higher level demons use them for muscle in case their afraid of being killed.'

'So someone sent this guy to attack us because they weren't brave enough to do it themselves?' Lisa said.

'Basically.' Dani confirmed. Meanwhile, Christina had pulled the book closer and really looked at his face.

'What is it Chris?' Amy asked.

'I feel like I've seen him before last night.' She said, thinking for a moment. 'Lisa, you said the girl followed me home from the funeral parlour?'

'Wait, what?' Dani said.

'It's not important.' Lisa brushed her off. 'Yes she did, why?'

'Because I think this guy was at my office earlier. I didn't realise last night but he looks so familiar.'

'You think he followed you here?'

'I don't know.' Christina said in frustration.

'Chris, I can take a look.' Katherine said.

'You don't like looking into people's memories. I won't make you do that Kat.' Christina said firmly.

'I know, but I want to. It could help all of us.' She came and sat opposite Christina and took her hands.

'Fine.' Christina sat up. 'But if it gets too much you need to stop.'

'I promise.' Katherine said. 'Right, relax your breathing.

Christina was sitting in her office talking on the phone.

'Do you see her?' Dani asked. 'Yeah, we're in her office.' Katherine said.

There were lots people walking past, the office was hectic. Katherine slowed the scene down in her mind.

'Anything?' Lisa asked. 'Not yet, Kath, move forwards a bit.'

Katherine went through Christina's memories like a movie on fast forward, until she could see her sister walking out of the building. She slowed it down and then paused.

'There.' She said. 'I've got him.' A few seconds later she released Christina's hands, both of them taking a sharp breath.

'It's still weird when you do that.' Christina said, rubbing her hands.

'Sorry, but we found him.'

'Really?' Where?' Lauren asked.

'He was standing outside the office. When she left for the day. He was leaning against the stairs coming down to the parking garage.'

'Okay, so if he was following me, into an empty parking garage, why did he wait until I got all the way home to attack? He had me alone, why risk having to face the six of us?'

'Maybe his orders weren't to kill you, but to find out where you live? Where we live?' Amy suggested.

'But he's gone, how will he get that information to anyone?' Christina asked.

'I was reading more about him whilst you two were in dreamland.' Dani said. 'And apparently they have an automatic transmission feature in them.'

'What does that mean?' Lisa asked.

'Like a camera in their eyes.' Dani clarified. 'So whoever was watching the camera knows where we live.'

'Shit, I'm sorry guys.' Christina said, leaning back.

'It's not your fault Chris, it could have been any of us.' Lauren assured her. Christina nodded before checking her watch.

'Damn it.' She said, getting up quickly.

'What?' Amy asked.

'I'm going to be late. I have to meet the manager of the foster company for the case I'm working on.'

'Chris you can't.' Lauren said. 'There could be more demons.'

'There's always more demons Lauren, I can't not do my job because of them.' She said, putting on her coat.

'Alright, but you can't go alone.' Katherine said. 'No one goes anywhere alone from now on.'

'I'll go with you Chris, I need to go into town anyway.' Lisa said.

'Fine, but hurry up. We need to leave like five minutes ago.' Christina said.

'Okay.' Lisa said, running up the stairs to get her hoodie and bag.

'Chris, just please be careful.' Amy said. 'We're safe when we're in this house and when we're together.'

'I know that Aimes, we will be careful and we'll be back before you know it. I have to do this though.' Christina pulled her into a hug as Lisa came back downstairs.

'Ready, let's go.' She said, heading towards the door.