Lilith shifts in space, eyes narrowed to slits as she conjures a pentagram on the ground around Darik, the air around it shimmering faintly. Then her hands flicks forward, summoning a pouch. Ropes shoot out from it and wrap around Cristine, glowing red before disappearing.

  “I’ve bound her other Yokai so they can’t be summoned, but I am an auditor, not a fighter! There is very little I can do here” Lilith huffs, using one heeled foot to conjure another teleportation circle on the ground around her. She makes eye contact with PK, a signal that an escape is ready, should they need it.

  Tim’s nods and shifts, his height now dwarfing Lilith as he transforms into a Therizinosaurus, swiping his claws through the air and catching the paper tendrils. They wrap around his huge arm, just like he wants, and he twists. The Yokai gets thrown off its feet and spins along with the enormous dinosaur, and it tries to unwrap itself and escape. PK goes human and grabs the bandages, twisting in the air and slamming the ghost into a shopping basket, before he pulls it towards him, landing on the handle. With a flip, he launches it on the air while still holding the scrolls, and waits tell its above Cristine to yank it down to crash on top of her.

  The pentagram fades with a sword strike right as it makes contact, buckling Cristine down to a knee. Her tails unfurl and grasps the cart, ripping it to bits as she reabsorbs the Yokai on top of her, and takes a step forward to finish off Darik, before her and six feet of pavement get scooped up by a Therizinosaurus’s claw and flung into the air.

  Cristine positions herself on the rubble and uses it to rocket towards Darik, pulverizing the rock to dust. PK’s claws meet her blade and Cristine is deflected into the ground, leaving a trail as she slides. She flips and catches herself on a street lamp, turns and slices it in half, then kicks it at Darik, PK moving to intercept it as Cristine makes it past him, dashing towards the boy, the tip of the blade inches away from his heart.

  PK’s human hand grabs it, the iron meeting the ghostly blade making a cloud of smoke billow up, and the paper Yokai’s tendrils erupt from her flaming her, snatching PK and lifting him up. He isn’t weakened anymore though, and his fingers rip the paper to shreds. He transforms into an Allosaurus and his leg comes down to stomp on Cristine, who flips away and up on top of another lamp post.

  The calamity sense intensifies as something about Cristine shifts, the half of her face still showing now has ethereal, black lines going from her eye to her fire, and the eye has transformed into something more bestial, her pupil a cat like slit. Her tails grow and grow and she takes an animalistic stance and launches herself, PK transforming into his Utahraptor to meet her in the air.

  She holds out a hand, now coated in a white and pink, claw-like ethereal flames. and grabs his snout. She drags him through the air and above her, plants both feet on his gut, and kicks off, sending PK higher and rocketing her towards Darik.

  PK hears the sword make contact with Darik’s gut, hears it slide through and the blood beginning to bubble and spew from the wound. He becomes human and turns midair, still flying off from the force of Cristine’s kick, and sees her flick his body off of her sword and into a nearby tree.

  Rage boils over in Tim as he screams, his mass growing by tons and tons as he spins in midair, becoming a Diplodocus. One hundred feet and 80 tons of dinosaur bear down on Cristine, his whip-like tail breaking the sound barrier and letting loose a sonic boom as it makes contact, the force making cars pop into the air and shattering shop windows, leaving the girl in an enormous crater.

  PK shifts human and looks down at the now unconscious Cristine, bones broken but quickly mending as her powers work their magic. His hands tremble and he grinds his teeth, until he starts to feel queasy. Another death on his hands, another death he could’ve...

  He perks up as he picks up faint, bubbling breathing. Darik’s still alive, heart beat fading, but there’s still a chance to save him. Lilith can probably heal him, for a cost, but whatever it is Tim will pay it.

  He turns to Lilith to ask for a deal, when his skin tingles and his hair stands on end. He turns back to Darik, just in time to see the boy burst into a silver and purple flash of light, so bright it hurts Tim’s eyes.

  It blinds him for just a moment, and when his sight returns, he sees Darik, unconscious where he lied, but otherwise healed.

  Tim jumps over to Darik and picks him up, his shirt dirty and wet with blood, but his wound is gone. Tim looks down to where the bully was lying, a human shaped patch of dirt lacking any grass. The soil is disturbed, like all the plants that were once there were torn out by their roots.

  He jumps back to Lilith, keeping his hearing focused on Cristine’s mending bones and Darik’s steady heart beat. She stands with her arms crossed under her chest, expression somewhere between interest and concern as she watches the sleeping boy.

  “He got powers...”

  “Yes, some sort of energy that's the opposite of Nether, the energy of the Hells. Wild and chaotic, It’s becoming more and more common, it would seem.” She traces a symbol in the air and watches as it turns into black smoke after a quick flash. “Something within him… ‘turned on’, though I can’t tell what it is, not yet”

  Damn it, just another thing to worry about on the pile. The purple and silver flash seems to hand out all kinds of powers, and the spectrum of strength can vary from Tesla and Ecto, all the way to Ray. The fact that what might just be a nuke is going to be going to Tim’s school... That it’s Darik of all people.

  Plus, as stupid as Darik is, he’s not an idiot. With Tim’s connection to Cristine, Darik can probably figure out PK’s real identity. Darik knows Tim well enough, he’ll be able to piece it all together as soon as he thinks about it. He’ll have to worry about that later though, as he hears Cristine shifting in the crater.

  “Now what to do with you?” He asks himself more than Lilith as he looks over to the hole.

  Lilith raises one eyebrow impossibly high.

  “You… are playing hero, and you don't have anywhere to put them when you’re done?”

  Tim shrugs, “I normally fight drug and weapons dealers. Destroy their supplies, punch ‘em, scare them to not try again.”

  “You think punching them makes them stop? Too scared to try again?” Lilith laughs a full bodied, insulting, disbelieving laugh. “Please tell me you’re joking?”

  “It's not a full proof method.” He shrugs. “Not what's important right now though. Do you know anywhere to put her? Or maybe like, take her powers away or something? I still have so many questions about how any of the supernatural stuff works.”

  “Anywhere to put her? No. Anyway to take her powers? No, not without a contract, of which she doesn’t seem particularly keen on signing.” Lilith sighs and makes a show of flipping her hair back over one shoulder, “though I'm sure I can answer your questions when things are a little less sensitive.”

  She conjures a black business card in her fingers and hands it over to him, red lipstick marking one side.

  “Give it a kiss and think of me, and I'll appear. Though you won’t be getting another one unless your summons is worth my while”

  Tim blushes hard under his mask, “Can’t I use like, that wet thing people use to close letters.”

  “Hmmmmm, no.” She winks, and moves backwards so that he has space in the teleportation circle. “A trip back to where we came from, if you want to take it. Otherwise I suggest you deal with your problem.” She motions towards Cristine

  Tim’s super hearing picks up sirens in the distance now, the cops taking an unsurprisingly long time to respond to the commotion. They’ll be able to take Darik and send him to a hospital, but Cristine...

  He sets Darik down and leans him against the supermarket wall, trying to position him to not fall over. After he’s stable, Tim slides down the crater and scoops up Cristine. She’s fully healed now and is starting to wake up, so not knowing what else to do, Tim lifts up his fist and cracks her in the face, knocking her back out, then jumps out of the hole and onto the circle with the girl in his arms.

  “Ok, ready.” He glances around at the destruction the fight had caused. “Man...”

  He’ll have to get better at the property damage part of this, too bad it takes so much force to even hurt people capable of keeping up with him that it's borderline impossible to have none. Maybe Lance or Becca can make some super glass and concrete, or something.

  “Just one moment.”

  Lilith begins to trace symbols on the back of Cristine’s neck as she lays unconscious on the ground, mixing powders and pastes in leather bags, sprinkling strange smelling dust over her, and whispering things under her breath.

  After a moment, she stands and dusts her hands off, planting them on her hips with a huff.

  “That should buy us some time. Not much mind you, but enough that she won't be killing anyone when she wakes up.”

  “What’d you do?”

  “Her power is derived from Nether, the natural energy source found in the Hells. I can limit its output for a time, like pinching off the flow of a hose.” She squeezes her fingers together. “But it will break after a little while, and when it does, pray you have a solution because she won’t simply ‘get too scared to try again.”

  “Listen, it sounded better in my head ok?”

  Lilith rolls her eyes, swishes her hips, snaps her fingers, and In another gut dropping shift of space, they appear back at Lance’s house, Jane hopping up from Lance’s desk and running up to Tim.

  “You’re alright?” She checks him up and down.

  “Yeah, I’m fine.” Physically at least, he was having a hard time thinking of a solution to where to keep Cristine, and his mind lingers on Darik.

  Lance stands up and walks towards Lilith. “Passion is sufficiently dealt with?”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “Sufficiently is debatable, though dealt with is more true than not.” She narrows her eyes faintly, looking somewhat distant. “He has made it clear that we are his enemies, and from the words he used I believe he is working with a number of others, others worth being concerned about I am afraid.”

  “Another threat to the list then, thank you. I suppose you’ll be making another card for my cousin?”

  She conjures one of her cards and hands it to Lance directly. “I respect the boy to death but he is a nightmare to work with. You, on the other hand, are far more agreeable.” She smiles that sweet, intoxicating smile that still has no effect on him.

  “I’m simply more capable of being pragmatic, that and his dislike for Devils is more deep seeded than mine. He was raised a Hunter, I was not. Besides that, it's illogical for an entire race to be evil.”

  Lilith laughs that full bodied, husky laugh of hers. “Oh hun, they are all evil, I’m only half a devil, so I don’t count.” She returns to her full height and adjusts her dress once more. “So, if this is everything, I will be on my way. You know how to reach me, if you need me.” She waves to Lance, and then blows a kiss to Jane and Tim before vanishing in a puff of black smoke.

  “Ugh, I hate her.” Jane furrows her brow.

  “She’s fiiiine.” Tim says, earning a sharp look from Jane. “She did temporarily knock out Cristine’s powers for us, but we still need a way to keep her under control.”

  “We have a room,” Lance says, “for containing supernatural entities safely. She shares all the same rules that relate to ghosts, she won’t be able to cross salt circles or get through things like iron bars.”

  “Right... but that... We’re going to what? Keep her locked up in your basement? That’s basically kidnapping.” Jane says.

  “Yes, however, it's better than letting her run rampant, trying to kill people.”

  Tim opens up his mouth to say something, shuts it, opens it again, but is still at a loss for other solutions.

  “I’m sorry Tim, I can work on another solution but for now, we have very limited options, and this will be the one that sits the easiest on both of our conscience.”

  “What do you mean?”

  ‘The other two options are turning to those we know can contain anomalies, Arch and Site-51.”

  “Not a chance.”

  “Indeed, so for now,” Lance grabs his salt inlay tool. “We’ll have to be her jailers.”

  20 minutes of uncomfortable silence, uncomfortable work tick slowly by. Edward returns from dealing with additional Yokai and begins to help prepare the cell half way through. The cell itself is a hidden room within the hunter cousin’s basement, already in the shape of a perfect circle. Iron rebar, placed in a grid pattern, covers the walls, small cubbies hold burning candles, their wax dripping out and running down onto the ground. Edward lights incense and places them in iron tabs on four points in the circular room, while Lance lays out general necessities and basic creature comforts onto the ground.

  Tim waits patiently, eyes locked on Cristine, watching for any movement, any attempt at escape. Ears so tuned in to her breath and heart beat that he nearly jumps when Jane sets a hand on his shoulder.

  “You’re not ok.” She states simply.

  “Would you be?”

  “Yeah, sort of.”

  Tim turns to her, then back to Cristine.

  “She’s crazy Tim, always has been, for as long as we’ve known her.”

  “If you're trying to make me feel better you’re doing a very, very bad job.”

  “I want you to feel better, yeah, but right now I'm just trying to make sure you realize something. This is the right thing to do, the only thing to do. Its a little fucked up, but not as fucked up as her killing people. I fucking hate Darik and his friends, fuck I kinda wish they would die.”

  “Jane...”

  “But I don’t want them to get cut down by a sword or torn up by some ghost, I wouldn’t kill them, even with powers.” She puts her hand on his cheek and makes him look fully at her. “Tim, this is on her, it's her own fault.”

  “Is it?” He turns back to Cristine. “Lilith said she wasn’t born like this, she was made into this. She was just weird, that’s it.” He sighs. “Just weird, not that different from us.”

  “Going around and biting people as a "sign of friendship” is a little beyond...”

  “She would’ve known better if... if I- if someone had given her the time of day.”

  “Tim...” Jane grabs his hand and squeezes, and it’s not till then that he realizes tears were rolling down his face.

  He quickly wipes them away as Lance and Edward emerge from the room.

  “It's ready.” Lance steps aside as Tim carries Cristine in and sets her down in the middle.

  “I hate this.” Tim says under her breath as he steps out.

  “It's necessary.” Edward tells him.

  “Yeah well, I bet that’s what Arch and the House Burners think too.”

  Tim stares at the sunrise from the back of the van, Lance having changed out its plates again, just to be safe. Jane leans on him, having fallen asleep only a few minutes into the drive home, and Tim uses his hearing to listen deeply to her inhales and exhales, her heart beating, but it’s only a mild comfort. The pressure is starting to mount again, and there’s still so much to do, but now he has to deal with Lilith’s mark.

  It didn't help his mood as his house came into view, his sister’s car in the driveway, along with other familiar vehicles parked along the street. Just because the tweakers moved out didn’t mean they were unwelcome, apparently.

  God he doesn’t want to be here. He just fought off super powered ghosts, learned that Heaven and Hell exists, and now he has to walk into this? Tweakers smoking, injecting, lying on the ground and drooling. A collection of them absent mindlessly sitting on the couch, waiting their turn for fucking Wii Bowling. It almost makes him miss the times they would hide it, pretend they weren’t using anything, or rather, he misses the times Delilah and his mother would make them hide it.

  He yawns as Lance pulls over and shakes Jane awake, then wipes a line of drool for her mouth that he didn’t notice was soaking into his shirt.

  “Sorry.” She yawns and rubs her eyes.

  “It's whatever.” Tim shrugs.

  Jane gives him a concerned frown, so he quickly goes and kisses her cheek, turning them red.

  “I’m ok.” Tim says.

  “Liar.”

  “Yeeeeah, but I don’t wanna talk about it right now.”

  “After we sleep?”

  “Sounds good.” Tim agrees and Jane climbs out the back of the van, standing and waiting for him.

  “Do you know when the effect of this mark is supposed to hit?” Tim pokes his head from the back to look at Lance.

  “Likely very soon, based on the wording of the contract, those sorts of things matter much more than you’d expect.” Lance taps the steering wheel as he thinks. “It will be good, I think.”

  “Hard disagree.” Tim huffs, suddenly becoming very tired. Lance seems to have been right on the money.

  “I know, but you have been through a lot today, and I think taking the weekend to... mentally recover, will be for the best.”

  “I don’t think I can, not with Cristine and Darik...”

  “Edward and I will do what we can.”

  “There’s only so much you guys can do if...” Tim stops as a look of hurt crosses Lance’s face.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean...”

  “You’re only stating facts.” He sighs. “There is only so much that I... that Edward and I can do if something major happens while you recover. Something like Ray, the Phantasmasaur, etc is far beyond our abilities. But still, I ask that you leave it to us.”

  Tim sighs, “Ok, I trust you.”

  “Thank you, I’ll be in touch.”

  “Keep me updated on Cristine.” Tim says.

  “Of course.”

  Tim walks down the path with Jane, stepping over the purple flowers while waving to Lance as he drives off, before grabbing Jane’s hand and giving it a few squeezes. Jane squeezes back, letting go as they reach the door.

  “Guessing you don’t want your sister to see us holding hands?”

  “Not any of them, not today at least.” He sighs. “Too much on my mind to deal with it.”

  “I figured.” Jane wiggles the doorknob, rolls her eyes, and pounds on it until someone answers.

  “Ugh, sounds like Alicia.” Tim sighs as he recognizes the sound and scent of the short haired woman that has been sleeping with Jane’s dad.

  “Ugh.”

  “Right?”

  “Oh, hi sweetie” She says after opening the door, “Saw your dad, he—”

  “Don’t care.” Jane barges past her with Tim following with a lethargic shrug as the mark’s effects grow heavier and heavier along with his body.

  Lilith wasn’t underexaggerating about the fatigue having interest, he was much more tired than when he had fought Passion, to the point where he barely realizes he’s made his way to his room and face plants onto the bed.

  Jane quickly joins him and starts massaging his scalp, her nails gently dragging across it as she gathers strands of his hair to idly play with. She says something, but Tim is too tired, and her touch too soothing for him to pay much attention, and he very quickly falls asleep.

  Who has been your favorite member of PK's supporting cast so far?