"Its better to have loved and lost, then never to have loved at all." -Alfred Lord Tennyson 

Love. It is such a short and simple word, but its such a complex and difficult concept.  

Love can build you up and give strength you never knew you had. It can give you a will to live through the hardest and most devastating circumstances. Love can make you smile even when you feel you can never do so.

On the other side, love can seem to tear you down, stripping you of your strength to do even the most simple actions. It can take away your will to live and make you feel there is no reason to continue on. It takes away all happiness to leave a dark hole of saddness.

 Even with the bad side, love is one of those things that everyone strives to feel. Love from a parent, from a sibling, from a grandparent, from a child, from a teacher, from a boyfriend/girlfriend, from a spouse, and so on. If they don't find love where they want it, they look for it someone else.

Everyone is taught to 'love thy neighbor' and to admire those they love. Everyone is taught that love is the best feeling and nothing is better. When you find that special someone, hold onto them, love them and cherish them, and make them happy. Everyone is taught that when you truly love someone, that person come first above all else and their happiness is what matters the most. 

But what if you weren't taught this? What if you were taught that love is just a sign of great weakness? What if you were taught that love is just a setup for your own downfall and demise? What if you were forbidden to fall in love? What if you were forbidden to get close to anyone?  

Love may build us up to a great heights and tear us down even faster but it turns back around builds us back up. It may be a roller coaster ride, but it is one that everyone is lined up for and excited to ride, because in the end you are the small child that jumps off claiming it was the best ride ever and the most fun.    

It is dark and quiet outside, which should be expected since it is in the middle of the night. The only sounds that can be heard is the faint skittering of the nocturnal creatures and the very quiet and purposeful foot steps moving away from the closest sign of life.

"Olivia? What are you doing here." The young man asks as the young lady steps into a small open area lit up by the moonlight.

"I can to be with you, Blake. I love you and I can't allow you to leave because my parents don't agree with us. It's none of their business." She tries to sound tough and sure of herself but the slight wavering in her voice is evidence to her nerves.

"You're parents hate me, but that is not why I am leaving." He reaches out for her hands, which she gives to him. "I have to go. My classes start back up at the university in a couple of weeks and I need to get back to get everything settled in."

She steps closer, gripping tighter onto Blake's hands as if this will keep him from leaving. "Take me with you." This answer sounded so simple, as if this solved everything.

He chuckles at first, but contains himself when he sees that the young woman in front of him was completely serious and hurt when he did not seem to take the answer as serious. "You can't go with me. You are only sixteen. You have so much to do. You need to finish high school, hang out with your friends, and say goodbye to your family before you just leave."

"I can be any age you want me to be. I can be twenty just like you. Then, I can be old enough to go. I don't have any friends and I don't care about my family. They don't want us to be together. They want to control me and you are giving them that. I have a right to live my own life." Olivia's tears finally fought through her barrier and made their paths down her cheeks. This man was the love of her life and she could not let him just walk away because her parents told him to.

"You may say you don't care right now, but later you will and you will be mad at yourself for not spending this time with them and mad at me for taking you away. I can't do that to you. When you really do turn eighteen and graduate and want to move, I'll still be here. You can come visit me while I'm in school and when the time is right, we can be together. The right time is just not now." Blake pulls her into his chest and leans down to kiss the top of her head. "I care about you Olivia. You are a great person, but I can't take you with me. I must go."

She shakes her head as she begins to sob and tightens her grip around his waist. She couldn't see herself letting him go. She loved him with all of heart, and she couldn't find the strength to let that go.

He finally gets her to loosen her grip and holds her at arms length, so he can look into her eyes. "Olivia, you need to stay here. You would miss out on so much. I know you don't think you will but trust me. You may find someone else that is better for you, and then I will be stuck regretting leaving you but that will be my burden. You must stay. If you still love me when the time is right, then you can come be with me." He was letting her down easy, but that did not make it any better for her.

She just nods her head and steps back from him. She looks up and into his eyes with hers, that are now reflecting the moon like a pool of water. "I love you, Blake Deardon."

She starts to turn away when she sees, in her peripheral vision, something flying towards Blake at great speed. She screams as she lunges for it, but finds herself to be too late. When she looks back towards Blake he is now lying on the ground grasping at the flying object that is now protruding from his chest. 

Olivia rushes over to check on him, but she knows immediately that it is not good. Blake had a large arrow in his chest which was costing him a lot of blood and making it extremely difficult for him to breathe. It only takes her a second to recognize the arrow, for it is a specially crafted arrow with a special touch to it. Only those on a mission given by her parents use these. 

She sit Blake up as he yells out in great pain. "Oh know it hurts, but we need to get this arrow out of you." She tells him, holding him up since he has lost all strength to do so. "Blake, listen to me closely. You have to stay with me. Listen to me." She demands loudly as her tears start to form again. "Keep your eyes open, baby. Please stay with me. I love you and I can't lose you. Not now and not like this." 

"I-I-" He stutters as he tries to catch a breath and starts coughing. 

Olivia notices the blood that comes out with his cough which means his lungs are full and he doesn't have long to live at all. This breaks her down into a sob. "Oh, Blake, this is all my fault. I know my family was dangerous but I selfishly held onto you anyway."

"Olivia," He whispers. He cringes when he coughs again. "I love you. I chose to stay because I wanted to be with you. I love you and I w ant you to know that." He reaches up and gently caresses her cheek, wiping her tear streaks away.

Its only seconds before the streaks are back down her cheek, but she smiles at her beloved. She leans down to whisper in his ear "I love you and will for the rest of my life." 

His hand falls lifeless onto his chest and his head falls sideways. Olivia sits up and see that his chest is still and knows there is no longer any life to hold onto. Blake is gone, and she knew who was responsible and why.

She stands up and turns to look towards the direction she had come from when she had met up with Blake. Up on top of the hill in a small opening in the forest, there her parents stood proudly as looked down on their daughter. What hurt Olivia the most though was when she looked to her mother's right, there stood her brother with a bow in his hand staring at her and then Blake. 

"I just don't understand why you won't go back. If you keep running, they will keep following and more innocent bystanders will pay the ultimate price just because you feel like sticking it to your parents."

"Whatever. I don't need this from you." Olivia groans as she stands up from the couch she was previously sitting on. She starts to walk to the bedroom. "If you don't want me to stay here then all you have to do is tell me. I understand. I'll be gone within the hour." 

Olivia starts throwing clothes into her bag. It will not take long for her to get all of her things collected because she does not have much. She can't allow herself to have too much. When someone is on the run, one must keep it light. It allows her to get everything and get out without wasting much time. Olivia has had years of experience in this area.

"I came here because I thought you'd understand. I guess I was wrong." It is obvious that she is upset with this, but there is nothing she can do about it. "I was just hoping that, out of all the people out there, Alyssa, you would understand how dad is."

Alyssa starts to laugh but it lacks any humor in it. "How would I know how he is? I don't know him. I just know what I've heard through stories."

"Oh don't go sounding all bitter on me. You're the lucky one." Olivia rolls her eyes.

"I'm the lucky one, huh? I never realized that not having a father around made me lucky. Don't tell me not to be bitter, Olivia." Alyssa's agitation level is increasing more and faster as this conversation continues. "I didn't even know you existed until you showed up at my front door a month ago. You are full of all these stories about how your dad cheated on your mother with my mom. You fell in love at the age sixteen, and your parents had the 'love of your life' killed because they didn't approve of him. Does this sum it up?"

"If you don't want to believe me, then don't. I don't care. I'm going, and I won't bother you anymore." Olivia grabs her bag and heads towards the door. She has a slight stomp in her step. "It is all true though. My parents did have him killed. They keep sending their soldiers after me to bring me back. I don't want to go back. I can't go back to them and to who I was when I was with them."

"Olivia, please don't leave like this. I don't want you to just run out. It is just hard for me to believe all of this." Alyssa tries to get her to understand. 

"I know, but you said yourself when I showed up and told you who I was that you knew I wasn't lying. That there was some kind of connection you felt immediately. Use that connection and know that I am not lying." Desperation is obvious in her tone.

"What if it is all true? What am I supposed to do? Allow you to stay here until one of these soldiers find you and then kills me to get to you, only so you can run away again?" The mocking is not appreciated, but she does have a point.

Olivia leaves her bag at the door, and grabs onto Alyssa's arm to pull her to the couch. She tries to explain the story again and then tried to assure her half-sister that no harm will come to her. She will be protected with Olivia's life.

"Besides dad would not have you killed. You are his daughter after all." Olivia states, hoping to calm Alyssa. She decides it best to leave out the fact that no one besides her and their father know about Alyssa, so that doesn't guarantee someone else wouldn't kill her. 

The two spend the rest of the night talking about what they each have done with their lives. Olivia sharing what it was like to be with her family for the first part of her life and now running from that same family. Alyssa explains the hardships she went through, not having a father of any kind in her life, mother struggling to make ends meet, and how many times she has prayed to have her father come back for her. This is the most they have talked in the whole month that Olivia has been here, all put together. 

Olivia tends to be stand-offish, and Alyssa tends to be a little resentful about Olivia being the daughter that their father wanted. Now that they have finally talked over stuff, they are a little more sympathetic towards the other. 

"Well I'm going to go out, walk around. Need anything while I'm out?" Olivia stands up and walks to the door, stopping for Alyssa's answer. 

"No, but don't you think it is a little dangerous to go out in the middle of the night, by yourself? Why don't you just stay here, go to bed, and get some sleep?"

"You worry too much. You forget who you are talking to. I won't get hurt." Olivia chuckles a little at her statement. "If you think of anything you may need, I have my phone." With this Olivia leaves her half-sister behind to worry about her. 

*******

It is 2:15 in the morning, about four hours after Olivia left Alyssa's apartment. She has been walking around town, seemingly in pointless circles. She continues to make her way down random roads or paths. To most of the people she has passed by, it just seems as if she is walking around aimlessly, but she is really watching all of her surroundings. She has to make sure that no one has followed her here or will be following her back. It may have taken a month but she enjoys being around her sister. It is someone that she can talk to about her life without being looked at like she is crazy. She does not want to run again, especially so soon. 

She is thinking about what all she could do if she is not found and is able to start a new life here. She starts picturing jobs she may have, the house she would live in, people should would hang out with, and she starts to picture the car she would drive when she hits what feels like a wall.

"Oh shit. That hurt like fucking hell." She curses as she stumbles back a couple steps while grabbing at her head. She starts to shake it off and feels that her left shoulder could be slightly bruised.

"Sorry. I was in a hurry to get somewhere. I didn't see you coming around the corner." The wall talks. "Are you okay?"

She looks up from her shoulder and see that her wall is actually a six foot hottie. His hair is very short with a slight curl to it. He stands tall with confidence and his face is covered with a look of concern, concern for her. This is something she is definitely not used to.

She shake off her thoughts. "I'm fine. I wasn't paying attention. My mind got away from me." She states absentmindedly as she look him over. 

"Is there anything I can help you with?" He questions her with an amused grin on his face, watching her check him out.

She shrugs with disinterest. "No, not really. You're very strong." She states simply as she looks back up at his face.

"Thanks. I do work out. You aren't all that scrawny yourself. I think I may have a nice mark on my chest where you ran into me." He laughs as he rubs his chest to emphasize his statement. "I'm Justin." He reaches his hand out to her.

"I'm Olivia. I'm sorry if I hurt you." She apologizes as she shakes Justin's hand and then moves to rub his chest. "Are you in much pain?"

"I'm fine. I'm a tough cookie. It's hard to hurt me." 

"That is good to hear. Well I must be on my way." Olivia sidesteps to go around her wall.

"I have to ask," Justin turns to watch her walk away. She pauses to let him ask whatever it is that he wants to know. "What is a lady like yourself doing out this late? It isn't safe to be out alone, especially this part of town."

"You're alone and in this part of town. Are you suggesting you need some help or something?" 

"That's funny." Justin chuckles. "I was wondering if you wanted me to walk with you somewhere?"

Olivia stands there and studies Justin. She tries to see if there is any kind of motive behind his question, maybe wanting to know where she lives. Could this man be working for her parents? He shows up out of nowhere, and he is very strong, stronger than a normal person should be. If he is working for her parents, there is no way she could lead him back to Alyssa's apartment. That would put her in danger, and she won't allow that. She has become Olivia's first real friend. She eventually agrees with the idea that she can take a long way around town. If he is there for her, then he will either make a move against her or he will definitely become extremely interest in very personal things about her. Justin will show his true colors before she makes it back to the apartment.

"Are you lost or are you just enjoying my company so much that you don't want to go home?" Justin teases as they make what seems to be the millionth turn.

"Why would you ask that?"

"Well we've been walking around for over an hour now and I'm pretty sure that this is the third time we have gone down this street." Justin points up to the street sign. 

"I'm sorry. I have been wasting your time." Olivia looks down in shame. Something that, again, is a little new to her. "I've been stalling."

"May I ask why? If you don't want me to walk you home, you can just tell me. I won't follow you or stalk you or anything. I was just wanting to help and maybe ask you for your phone number."

"Why would you want my phone number?"

"So I can call you and maybe ask you out on a date sometime." Justin answers her sheepishly. The confident man turns shy. "I'm still a little curious as to why you have been giving me the run around, literally in a sense. At first I was a little confident that you might some attraction too, but now I feel like you are just trying to get rid of me."

Olivia shakes her head. "No I must be honest. I first started the walk to see if you were working for someone who is trying to hurt me. As the time passed, I saw that you are actually harmless and started to enjoy your company." 

"I wouldn't necessary call myself harmless." Justin smiles at her. "I can hold my own."

"I know. I just meant you are harmless to me. It isn't anything personal. I am sure you are very strong and very intimidating. I just don't believe you can or will hurt me." 

Her answer confused Justin and it showed on his face. "I'm not sure I know what you are saying. You are right. I won't hurt you, but the rest confused me a little."

"I know what you are." She states in a loud whisper.

"What I am? I'm not sure I understand. You know where I work? What I do for a living? What exactly am I?" He questions her, stepping away from her to get a good look at her.

"I know you aren't human." This statement made Justin's eyes widen to the size of large dinner plates as he continued to move farther away from Olivia, looking at her like she were a mental patient.

"I have no idea what you are talking about, but I am human. I'm thinking maybe we should just go our separate ways here. Have a good night." He tells her and turns to walk away, disappearing into the darkness of the night. 

The smell of coffee roams throughout the apartment, and the birds seem to chirp extra loudly this morning which is probably their way of being heard over the yelling coming from the apartment. 

"I cannot believe you would say that to him!" Alyssa exclaims as she pours herself a cup of coffee and then joins Olivia in the living room. 

"I figured he'd want to know that I know. Maybe he would talk to me about it." She shrugs to show she sees no problem in what she did.

"I realize you don't see an issue in this, but you have to realize that if someone doesn't tell you something, it is probably because they don't want you to know. How long has it been since you've had any real contact with someone?" 

"Why does that matter? He's not human."Olivia argues, avoiding the question.

"It matters because you obviously do not own any social skills if you think that 'he's not human' is an acceptable argument. Whether he is or isn't human does not matter. He considers himself to be one, and maybe you are wrong. Treat him like a human." Alyssa tells socially-challenged half-sister. 

The two sit in silence for a few minutes before Alyssa sighs and puts her coffee mug on the table. She turns to her sister and breathes in. "Have you really secluded yourself from people ever since Blake's death?" She asks a little worried that she may be prying too much.

"You mean since Blake was killed?" Olivia is asks with slight anger in her voice. Alyssa nods but turns back around to show that she won't push it. It is Olivia's turn to sigh now. "After I lost Blake, I ran. I ran from my parents, from my family, from everything I knew. I didn't stay anywhere for too long, so I saw no reason into getting to know anyone. It's not like I was sticking around. This is the longest I've stayed anywhere." Olivia stares down at her hands as she talks, almost like a small child pouting after getting into trouble. "I guess I could have handled Justin better, but I still don't see why there has to be an issue."

Alyssa proceeds to explain the importance of secrets and a person feeling like they are a part of something. A person keeps some information to themselves because they don't truly understand it, or maybe they just don't know how to talk about it so they keep it to themselves. If Justin wants to talk, he will but she cannot force him to and expect him to be comfortable about it.

"Besides, I can't help but wonder how you know that Justin is 'not human' if he didn't tell you. And what exactly would he be then?" Alyssa's curiosity is at its peek now. Let's hope it doesn't kill her.

"The same way I know everything else about him that I do without him telling me. I know that his last name is Timberlake. I know that his family has lots of money. I know that he has lots of money. I know that he works at a huge software design company. I know that he thought I was beautiful when we first ran into each other, and he thought I was a crazy person afterwards." Olivia explains as if this were all common knowledge.

"You know all of that, and he didn't tell you anything about that?"

Olivia shakes her head. "He didn't have to."

"So how do you know what he is?" Alyssa questions as she leans forward with anticipation.

"I've been around his kind a lot while I was growing up. Its not hard to figure it out. I think the sad part is that he isn't sure what he really is. He doesn't know anyone else like. That's why I figured telling him that I knew what he was, that he would feel better about himself."

"What is he?"

"You would probably, due to TV shows, call him a demon or maybe a 'gifted' person. We always called his kind a nuisance. He has some...um powers, I guess you can say. They don't all have the same kind. He isn't full demon so I'm not sure what he can do. He obviously has a power of some kind or he probably wouldn't even know he was half-demon. One of his parents fell in love with a human and he is the product, a half-breed." Olivia shrugs again. This information does not phrase her a bit, but Alyssa seems to be on the edge with it all. "We found his kind a nuisance, but we found half-breeds to be worthless scum, easy to kill off. They did not possess enough powers for us to care about them."

"We? What do you mean? What are you?" Alyssa asks.

***

"She really said that to you?"

Justin paces his living room floor while his close friends sit around watching him.

"I just don't know what she means by 'not human.' I'm human, damn it!" He yells out in frustration.

"Maybe she was just talking about your gifts. Maybe, she just sensed them. What if she has some herself and thats why she knows you aren't exactly like everyone else." His best friend, Trace suggests trying to ease his friends mind.

"You need to calm down, first of all." Cara tells him. "I don't see why you are so worked up about this. She sounds like a crazy bitch to me. Just let it go." She rolls her eyes and flicks her wrist in disinterest, going back to the magazine she was reading.

"Don't be such a bitch, Cara." Rachel, Justin's cousin, tells her. "Look, Justin, you have a couple of options. You can either forget about this or you can try to find this girl and talk to her about it. If she is like you, then this could be kind of cool. You can compare your powers and maybe she has a cool one too." She seems excited about the idea of Olivia.

"I don't know. What if she's one of those people that don't agree with me having these abilities and is actually wanting to kill me?" 

Trace just laughs at his friend. "Paranoid much? You sound like a girl." Of course, the female in the room protest this statement. "Look, all I'm saying is, if she had wanted to kill you, she probably would have instead of giving you notice that she knew."

Justin nods as he thinks about everything his friends have told him. They may be right. He is curious how Olivia knew about his abilities without him saying anything. He knows he didn't subconsciously use them. It's difficult to not be aware of that. It would be nice for him to have someone to talk to that actually experiences what he does. His friends are great and very understanding, but it isn't quite the same. 

"Alright. I'll try to go out again tonight and see if I happen to run into her again. Maybe I can get some info on her this time around." Justin has made his decision. Let's hope it doesn't end in disaster.

Justin had grabbed his jacket and set off to seek out the girl from the other night. Now he is walking around in the darkness of night, searching empty streets and neighborhoods, hoping for a bit of luck. He makes a point to spend time on the location where they had originally run into each other, and then searches the streets where she had detoured him. It has been several hours and night is about to come to an end. "This is ridiculous." He huffs as he throws his hands in the air in defeat. He turns in his spot to return to his home. "I cannot believe I just wasted a hole night. What are the odds that she'd be out again tonight? I could have just imagined her." He tells himself as he walks down the street.

"Kind of like you are imagining the person you are talking to right now, or do you have a nasty habit of talking to yourself?"

Justin whips around to find Olivia leaning against a building he had just passed, not five seconds ago. She is just leaning, with her arms crossed, while she looked at Justin with a questioning look.

"So hallucinations or just crazy?" She asks again with a smile.

"I'm not sure. I'm hoping just crazy, and you are real." He states honestly. "Where did you come from? You weren't there just a second ago."

"I've been around." She pushes off the wall and walks into the light of the street lamp. "You've been looking for me all night. Want to tell me why you are so anxious to see me again?" She raises her eyebrow.

"Why would you think I'm looking for you?"

"Well, it night and there isn't much activity going on. Plus, you walked around the same block, where we ran into each other last night, five times. Then, you proceeded to trace our footsteps down all the streets I took us when you offered to walk me home. When no sign of me, you gave up because there weren't good odds of me being out again tonight. I figured at that point, I should help you out." She describes to him his whole night.

"You've been following me all this time? Why would you do that and why wouldn't you reveal yourself before now?" Justin is annoyed, frustrated, and very tired from walking around all night.

"Reveal myself? Do people really say that?" Olivia asks in humor, but see that Justin is not in a humorous mood. "Well, honestly, I came to find you and when I did, you seemed to be looking for someone yourself. I was curious, and when I realized it was me you were looking for, I became even more curious as to why you would be looking for me." She walks up to him and looks at him as if she were searching for something. "If I'm not mistaken, I would swear that you were extremely upset with me the last time we had a run-in."

"I'll admit that you caught me off guard. I was a little offended that you would say I'm not human. I'm just as human as anyone else, just as much as you." He states.

"Probably more so." She mumbles back. Justin asks her to repeat, but she just shakes her head and moves on. "I must apologize for my rudeness. I didn't realize what I said would be so hurtful. I'm not used to being around people who care that much. My sister explained to me that it was wrong and I understand I went about it the wrong way, so I'm sorry."

Justin is quiet and looks her over, trying to see if she is truly sincere with the apology. After seeing no sign of the contrary, he nods his heads and tells her he accepts the apology. He starts walking again in hopes that she will join along, and she does so. 

The walk a couple of blocks before Justin comes to an abrupt halt and turns to Olivia. "What did you mean when you said that I wasn't human? I don't understand it, and it really bothers me that anyone would say or think that about me."

Olivia smiles at him as if she were keeping a secret. "Wow. You were holding that one in for a while now. I was expecting the question soon after I revealed myself." She said with a little mockery towards the end. 

Justin just stands quietly staring at her. He refuses to say anything else until she answers his question. He wants to, needs to, know what she meant my the comment. One simple statement has bugged him so much over the past 24 hours. 

"Like I said before, I didn't mean any offense by it. I was just stating a mere observation." She shrugs her shoulders.

"A 'mere observation?' What the hell does that mean? I haven't done anything abnormal." 

"I didn't mean...look, I just meant that you aren't like everyone else, and you know that." she sighs.

"I'm not sure I know what you are talking about?" He challenges her.

"Fine. You are a demon, well half-demon anyway." She rolls her eyes. "I would say it's probably from your mother's side since you have obtained some abilities out of it. What are yours anyway?"

"Demon?! I am no demon, and my mother has nothing to do with this. She is definitely not a demon." He is furious now and regretting the decision to look for her again.

He turns back to where he was going and starts to walk swiftly back home. He will forget this whole thing and go back to living his life. He cannot seem to think of a reason as to why he even agreed to do this in the first place. His friends convinced him that he would find some answers, and instead he has only been insulted and called a demon. 

He gets quite a ways before Olivia runs up from behind him. "I'm sorry again. I shouldn't have called you a demon. It is what I am used to and I must remember that you are not. I realize that you may refer to it as 'gifted'. You have special gifts or abilities that you have inherited. I don't mean to imply that you are some evil being. I, also, don't mean to imply anything horrible about your caregiver. You obviously care for her, and there is a special bond between you to. I was just stating what I know through experience. With someone who is..." she seems to have a difficult time coming up with the correct way to express her thoughts "mixed?" She questions this word after receiving a confused look. "I figured half-breed would be terrible to say. I'm sorry. I'm not good at these social things. I've learned that when someone gifted and someone who is not mate...um, fall in love and share a child," she changes her wording quickly, "that in most, if not all, the child takes most characteristics from the mother. So in your case, you would get your abilities, or lack of, from your mother."

Justin listens to all that she has to say. After all, she seems very informed about it all. "Why demon?"

The question was short and seemed simple. Olivia knew what he meant though. Why did she choose to call him a demon? Why can't he just be 'gifted'? He's not evil, and his mother is one of the most generous and most giving people he knows? How can she be demon? Besides, she doesn't have any abilities, so she has to be wrong.

"Demons are where your abilities derive from. Demons are all over. They hide amongst humans as a form of camouflage. Most use this to get to their enemies easily. Many use it as an escape from their enemies, and very few use it to become human, in a way. I assume your mother may have been one of these few. These usually find that they do not wish to be who they are, don't follow their basic instincts, and want to be good. They want to live a normal life, fall in love, have a family, and die like the rest of those around them." She tries to explain in the easiest way she knows how without hurting him any more than she has. "When did you realize that you were different?"

"I was thirteen. All my friends were going through your normal puberty. They started getting acne, they started having growth spurts, and they started being attracted to girls more and more. They were going through an awkward stage. Mine was different. I started to feel different, but I just assumed it was the puberty like everyone else said and like my parents explained to me, but it wasn't." 

The pair were walking again, but very slowly, as if Justin needed to get all of this off his chest and out of his mind and didn't want the walk to end too soon.  He didn't know how she knew about him, he didn't know who she was, but he did know that it felt good to talk about it to someone, especially to someone who may be able to explain it to him.

"I remember I was at school, outside goofing around, when the girl I had a crush on walked by. I started to talk to her, but just as we were about to exchange phone numbers, Thomas, the school bully, came along and decided to step in. He started mocking me and making her uncomfortable around me, and then he thought it would be funny to pull my shirt up over my head and pull my shorts down to my ankles. I was humiliated and so mad." He describes the situation to Olivia, and she feels terrible for him as she walks quietly along with him, listening. 

"I remember feeling this energy surge through me. I had walked around the building, so he wouldn't see how much he had gotten to me. No one was around, and I just punched the wall, hoping this would relieve some of my anger. My fist almost went all the way through the bricks. There was a hole, and my hand barely had scratches on it. I was suddenly extremely strong. I figured this could be good for when I punch Thomas out." He chuckles at this thought. "About a week had past since the incident, and the teasing had started to die down. I had great friends that helped. It wasn't until the next week that Thomas decided to pick on me again. I was sure this would be when I got to show him who was the real boss."

"He was pushing me around, calling me names, and whatever else he could think of to draw attention. I was really starting to get pissed. I figured this was my chance to punch him. I could feel the anger boiling up inside of me. I was just about to punch him, when I looked down and I saw sparks. At first I had no idea where they were coming from, but I soon realized they were coming from my fingers. They were small electrical sparks, like this." He brings his hands up and hold them about a foot apart with his fingers bent in a little. A second later, there were bright lines of electrical currents that connected his left fingers to his right ones. "That's not all. I have incredible strength, I can control electricity, I can move extremely fast, and I heal quicker than most people. I know I'm not normal, but I also know that I am human. I'm a good person, and I have great family and friends that will agree to that." He wants to make her believe this, almost as if it will change things.

"I know you are. It's obvious that you have had a tough time dealing with these abilities, especially since you are the only person you know like this. I seem to be jaded when it comes to these things, and obviously tend to offend people when I do talk about them. It is clear that you are a good person, and that you have a lot of humanity in you."

"I must ask again. How do you know all of this stuff?" He needs to know. He wants to know that she can be trusted and be someone he can talk to and help him understand more.

"I've lived my entire life around demons, and not the good kind either. Thats why I am not used to talking to people who are easily offended by the things I say." She tells him.

"So, you, yourself, don't have any special abilities. You can just easily spot those who do?"

She stops walking and laughs, more to herself. Justin wonders what is so funny, but Olivia can only shake her head at first. "I don't mean to laugh. I guess I should just be honest. I can easily spot those who do, because like I said I've grown up around them my entire life. I've seen many many types, origins, of demons. I've seen abilities that you can't imagine. I've seen so many killed because of them." Olivia steps up to Justin, so close that he could feel her breath on his face. She stares directly into his eyes, making him feel very uncomfortable. "I know all of this because I am completely demon, and not the good kind."

It has been two weeks since Olivia met up with Justin for the second time. It seems that Justin didn't take the news as well as either one had hoped. He had hoped that meeting up with Olivia would mean that he would finally find someone like himself to talk to and maybe help him understand more about himself. Instead, he find that his fears overcame his hope as soon as Olivia informed him of who or what she is. She's not like him. 

Olivia had hoped that her meeting with Justin would allow her to apologize to him and maybe in the process, gain a new friend. She has been avoiding interaction for almost ten years now. Being here with Alyssa makes her see that she is tired of running. She wants to stay here, get to know her sister, and maybe, eventually, have friends of her own. She doesn't want to be who she was anymore. She told Justin in hopes that he would maybe try to help her, but it is clear that he is scared of her just like everyone else was...is. 

Olivia has gone out every night, but has failed to run into Justin again. He is avoiding her, and she cannot blame him. She should have expected it. She is just so used to people doing everything she wanted and following her every wish, desire, and demand, and doing everything they could to please her. She likes not having people be this way around her, but she still has to adjust to the fact that she can't make people be her friend, force them to want to be around her.

******

"Maybe you are just blowing it all out of proportion." Trace states as they all gather around the pool. "She could have just meant that she has more powers than you because both of her parents had them, and just perhaps she may have done some things that she's not proud of when she realized she had her. I mean you punched a wall and wanted to punch Thomas with this new found strength when you realized you could shoot electricity through your fingers. Maybe she couldn't control her powers. You don't even know what they are."

"Neither of my parents have stupid powers. I would know it." Justin is hoping not to have this conversation again. "She said herself that she is 'completely demon, and not the good king' so what am I supposed to think and do?" 

"You're supposed to stick around and talk to her. Get to know her, and get her to explain this crazy world that she's been living in." Rachel swims up to the edge of the pool and invited herself into the conversation. "I'm actually curious what her abilities are? I mean, if she really is completely demon, she's gotta have some crazy cool powers right?" Her excitement is hilarious to Tace.

"I didn't even think of that." The excitement is contagious apparently. "What are her powers?!"

"Don't you think we should be more worried about her using her powers against us?" Cara speaks out now. "I mean, if Justin can kill so easily with his bare heads, not to mention he can cause a lot of damage from a distance, we can only assume that her powers are much more." Cara looks over at Justin and sees his face fall at her proclamation of how dangerous he is. She is quick to backtrack. "We know Justin is one of the good guys that would never hurt anyone, but we can't be sure about her."

Rachel rolls her eyes. "Nice cover." Her sarcasm is obvious to everyone. "Justin, you can't honestly that dangerous. She would have already made her move, especially know what you are and what you can do. She would probably find you a threat." She tries to reason with him.

"I just think it'd be really cool to have someone else with cool powers around." Trace shrugs as he lays back in his chair.

"Yeah, because thats what we need. Someone thinking they are better than everyone else." Cara whispers.

Justin turns to look at Cara. They have been good friends since the fourth grade. "Is that what you think of me? That I think I'm better than you?" He could not believe that she would think something like this. "If anything, I think you all have it better. You have no worries about how you may accidently kill someone by a simple touch or if your  anger gets out of control or if you happen to get in a fight for honor or for a loved one."

The goofing around seemed to come to a sudden stop. No one really understood that their friend felt this way. That he would actually kill someone. He is the most kind-hearted person they know, and he feels like it would not take much for him to be the opposite.

"Justin, none of us feel like you are capable of anything terrible." Cara reassures him. "We know you. We know that you are a good person. We love you, and we would not want you any other way."

"Besides, if we ever need a wall knocked down or electricity is out, you are our hero." Rachel tries to joke to lighten the mood back up.

Justin smiles and nods to let his friends know he'll be okay. They decide to drop the discussion about Olivia and move onto happier topics so they can enjoy their day in the sun. The group spends the day laughing and splashing. It seems all is well, except Justin cannot get Olivia off his mind. Rachel had a point. Why hadn't she used her powers on him? Why does she know so much? Why did she tell him that his powers were hereditary? Is is really true? Is is possible that his mother has some kind of ability that she has kept secret all his life or is she lying to him? Why would she lie? It is not like she has anything to gain from it, right?

He seems so lost, even more now than before. He contemplates going back to Olivia to demand answers, to help him understand, to know for sure if she is good or if she is bad.

******

"What did you do this time to make him run?" Alyssa asks as she sits the bowl of popcorn down on the table beside the box of pizza and 2-liter of soda. 

Olivia had just finished telling her that she hasn't talked to or seen Justin in two weeks, not since there last encounter. "Why does it have to be something I did? I did everything you told me to do and he still ran."

"You apologized to him?"

"Profusely."

"You tried to get to know him?" Alyssa asks and Olivia nods. "You listened to him?" Another nod. "You took back your 'not human' statement." Nods again. "You didn't call him a demon did you?"

"Not really."

"Olivia! You called him a demon?!" Alyssa exclaims.

"No! I told him that his abilities derive from demons, but I could tell that he was a good person."

"There's something you aren't telling me."

"I don't think so. I told him the origins of his power. I told him that he is good. I told him that I understood the demon world because I grew up around it, and then I told him that I was demon myself." She shrugs nonchalantly as if she really could not see where she went wrong.

"You told him what? Why would you tell him that you were a demon?" Alyssa asks confused by her actions. "You do realize that doesn't help matter any. When I told you to talk to him and make him feel comfortable about who or what he is, I didn't mean for you to lie about yourself. You can't say you are like them and hope they feel better."

Olivia threw her head back in frustration. "You just don't get it do you? I'm not telling him shit just to make him feel better. I have other, more important, things to worry about than whether sensitive boy feels better about himself. I tried to help and obviously I'm not good at it, so I give up and he can deal with his shit on his own." 

It took a minute or two before things started to get into Alyssa's brain, but she did realize that Olivia was saying that she didn't lie about anything she told Justin. That would mean, "your demon?"

"Maybe we shouldn't talk about this." 

"No, I need to know. You told Justin you were completely demon. Did you mean that both of your parents are demon? That my father is a demon? That I am demon?" Alyssa's questions all flow out one after another. She is suddenly not feeling so well.

Olivia starts to feel bad, once again. This feeling seems to be reoccurring ever since she made the decision to stay and live with Alyssa. Before, she had no regrets. If she hurt someone's feelings, she had no care. They would just have to get over it. Now, she finds herself regretting things she says and does and then trying to fix whatever went wrong. This time she is unsure how to approach it, what to say to her. She did not mean for her to find out like this, but Alyssa had wanted details about he encounter with Justin, and she shared all of them.

"So am I half-demon?" She asks again, fearful of the answer.

Olivia waits a moment, thinking about her answer before slowly and reluctantly nodding. Alyssa looks away from her, trying to process this new information. She takes a deep breath and looks back at Olivia and asks about powers. She wanted to know if she had any and what they were.

"Usually in...mixed breeds, powers come from the mother's side. Like in Justin's case, his mother is the demon, so he portrays her abilities. In your case, your mother was human. You most likely don't have any and if you do, it'll just be a slight enhancement of something that will probably go unnoticed or explained away by adrenaline or something like that." Olivia tries to explain in a way to make it easy for her. "I'm sorry. I didn't want you to find out this way."

Alyssa's eyes start to water due to information overload, but she can't help but be curious. "What about you then? Apparently both of your parents were so-called demons, so I assume you have powers. What are yours?"

"My parents were not 'so-called' demons. They are demons. They are ruthless in their ways and power-hungry. That is why they are looking for me. They want me back. My family happens to pretty much be on the top of the food chain when it comes to power and evil, and they were hoping, and still are, that I will join them there. I refused, and I have been running ever since." Olivia needs her to understand that she wants nothing to do with being evil, not anymore. "I can't lie. There was a time that I would have done anything to make my parents happy. I wanted them to be proud of me, and I worked hard to make them so. Now I am ashamed of how I was and would do anything to take back most everything that I did. I was a terrible person, and now I will do anything to make up for that."

Alyssa nods and smiles at her as she reaches over to place her hand on her back, trying to comfort her. "You are a good person. Your past is just that, your past. Leave it there. Do what you can to be a good person now and that is all anyone can ask."

Olivia is grateful for her new sister. She is hoping that they will become very close, but at the same time fears what will happen if they do and her parents do find eventually find her. She will just have to do everything she can to protect her. For the first time, she feels like she belongs somewhere and she intends to prove that she does.

"So..."Alyssa smiles big again and scoots closer to Olivia," what are your powers?"

"So how evil were you?" Alyssa asks. 

"Is that really an appropriate question?" Olivia asks as she moves to get up and leave the room.

Alyssa just stands up and follows her, asking again. She wants to know so much, and Olivia is very reluctant about sharing anything about herself. She follows Olivia into her bedroom and tries to push her into talking. Even if Alyssa did not want to hear all of the details, she knows it would be good for her to talk. 

"I don't want to talk about this." She says with a definitive tone. "You really don't want me to talk about it either. Trust me. I was not a nice, caring person. i killed just to kill. I killed out of boredom, out of anger, out of power, and out of pure joy of it."

"So what have you been doing today? Kill anyone fun?" Alexander asks with great humor.

"Oh my dear brother, I do have things to do other than kill for fun." Olivia states with a matter-of-fact.

"Right. Thats a funny one. I'm sure the parents would be so proud of you." Sarcasm present in his tone. "What have you been doing? I did see that someone missed out on a good kill this morning."

"I've been taking care of some things. Its none of your business. What have you been doing? Following me?" 

The two enter into Olivia's living quarters. Alexander finds a comfortable spot on the sofa and throws his feet up. He lies back and places his hands behind his head in great leisure. Olivia removes the bow from her shoulder and places it on the wall. She then proceeds to remove one of her hunting blades, lying it on the table in front of her, and then removes three other blades that were concealed in several areas. 

"Only four blades this time?" Alexander laughs.

"I told you I had stuff to take care of." Olivia shrugs as she picks up the first blade and begins to clean it.

"Cleaning? You did kill today?" Alexander's smile grows wide.

"I never said I didn't. I said that I had other things to do than kill for fun. You just assumed that meant that I didn't kill." She smirks at her brother.

"If you didn't kill out of pure fun, who and why did you kill?" He sits up now, waiting for a story. "Boredom? Anger? Power? Did someone step on your toes?" He is laughing.

Olivia puts her weapons away and joins her brother on the sofa. "More out of annoyance. I was trying to sit and enjoy being by myself, and here comes a stupid Harpy and decided it was appropriate to come sit down and eat my food, right off my plate. Don't touch my food. Plus, she was just ugly and I didn't really want to look at her."

Alexander laughs loudly and asks her if she is really serious.

She shrugs. "No, not really. I was really trying to enjoy to time alone and one of the guardsmen came over and started to bother me. I'm pretty sure he was trying to flirt with me, thinking I would fall for it and marry him or at least convince the parents to let him be part of our trusted circle." She rolls her eyes and tells of how his flirting was not good and she just got annoyed and stabbed him in the neck to shut him up.

Alyssa is stunned. She wants to say something, but she doesn't know what to say. She was thinking that maybe Olivia was forced by some army general type. She killed to save her life or the life of someone she cared about. Alyssa never figured that Olivia killed just because she was annoyed with some guy trying to hit on her.

"I warned you. You didn't want to hear the story of my life. I was not a good person."

"If you were so bad, then how did you become who you are now. You seem to be upset about your past. If you were still evil, you wouldn't feel bad about what you've done. What made you change?"

"I met Blake. I started to fall in love, and wanted to be the kind of person he could love."

"Motherfu-" Olivia tripped over a tree stump, causing her to lose her balance. She caught herself on a nearby tree. She is pissed because she never falls. She is an excellent hunter. Her prey never gets away. She growls as she checks out her surroundings and straightens her bow. "Now I have to hunt him down. Always good to look at the bright side of things. The hunt can be the most exciting part." She laughs to herself.

She starts to walk in the way that her 'prey' and starts her hunt. She only gets a few feet before she is distracted by the sound of loud music and laughing. She veers off her path and starts moving towards the sound. In an opening of the woods, there was a small group of young men and women, playing loud music, joking around, enjoying their time. She starts roll her eyes and walk away when the last one to join the group shows up.

"Blake! Its about time you got here." She hears one of the males to hear.

She cannot seem to take her eyes off of him. He is the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome but that is not what caught her attention. His smile is bright. She could feel its contagious properties even from where she is standing. She stood there for a long moment, just staring, watching him interact with his friends. He is clearly a man that loves life, and made all those around him do the same. She completely forgot about her hunt and continued to watch this man.

"After a few days of watching him, I had decided that there was no way I could possibly think about interacting with him, not with who I was. I was already lying and running off to go see him because I knew my family wouldn't approve. Our parents had high hopes on who we chose to be with. It was a power thing. Humans are not even close to even being on the list, much less on top." Olivia explains. 

The sad, defeated look on her face almost broke Alyssa's heart right then and there. "How did you all finally start talking?"

"I was out on a normal hunt again, and I was tracking someone when I saw him. He was wandering around in the woods. He spotted me and called me over. I couldn't resist, so I was more than willing to go to him. He spotted my bow and arrows and started talking about hunting. He was an avid hunter, of course he hunted deer and turkeys and assumed I did too. I couldn't seem to bring myself to tell him that we hunted different things. We met up several times. I kept an eye out for my prey while helping him hunt his." Olivia couldn't help smiling even though she was slightly ashamed of her actions. "We developed strong feeling for each other very fast and over time, I grew to love him."

She pauses to take a breath. She didn't realize that telling this would upset her so much. She hates to think about her past. "We continued to see each other. I had told him that my family owned a small cabin in the woods, so he would always come see me. The cabin had actually belonged to someone that I had killed several months prior, so I used it for my advantage. It started off great, but the family started to notice when I skipped out on hunting assignments, when I made excuses not to go on missions set up by them, my brother noticed that I wasn't killing much as a whole. Apparently the parental units decided to have Andrew follow me and that is how they found out about Blake."

"I'm so sorry, Olivia." Alyssa didn't know what else to say. 

Olivia nods and continues. "They had first threatened his life, but I threatened to leave. Andrew talked them into making a deal that if I agree to never see Blake again and go back to the 'old me' then they would let Blake live. I tried so hard to avoid Blake for his own good. The last time I saw him, I was going to leave with him. He was leaving to go to college, and I wanted to go with him. I would have made sure that we stayed hidden, but he wouldn't let me. He didn't want to tear my family apart. He kept saying that I was only sixteen, too young to run away. He would come back for me. Thats when my parents caught up to us, and had him killed. He was shot in the chest with an arrow, by my brother." Tears were streaming down her face. 

"Oh god, Olivia, I am so sorry. I didn't realize that was how it happened. I am so sorry. I know it had to have been tough to see this. I can't imagine seeing someone I care deeply about die in front of me like that."

"It was my fault. I should have just left him alone. I wanted to see him, be with him. I finally agreed to stay behind without him and he still lost his life. Thats when I truly realized how horrible I was. When I killed another, I was taking away someone's loved one in some cases."

"He seemed to be a great person and obviously he made you into a better person, so maybe he served his purpose." Alyssa tries to rationalize. The glare that she receives is very uncomfortable. "I'm not saying he deserved that by any means. No one does, but maybe his destiny was set to bring you over to the good side."

Olivia stands up quickly. "I will not stand for you talking about him this way. He is not just some chess piece that just happened to get taken so another of more importance or power can make it through. I am not the one that should have gotten through. He was the better person."

"I'm not saying that he is not important. I'm just saying that you were only sixteen. You couldn't possibly understand 'love of your life' concept. You were probably just crushing on him. I would never wish his fate on anyone, but you said yourself that you have powers and skills to defeat other demons. Maybe you were meant to be on our side. Help us fight against evil. Hid death was not in vain." Alyssa tries to explain herself, hoping to get Olivia to see that she cannot hold onto Blake and not see that she is still a better person because of him.

"I was not just 'crushing' on Blake. I loved him and I know it was love because I have never felt that way about anyone and I have lived long enough to know what is different and special." Olivia is pacing the room, upset with the way this discussion turned out.

"In twenty-five years, you are able to know this? I am twenty-eight and I don't even know what true love is."

"I'm not twenty-five. I lied. He assumed I was sixteen, so I let him think I was. That was nine years ago, so now I'm twenty-five to the world. I'm immortal. I don't die so I've been around for long enough to know the difference." Olivia drops the ball.

Alyssa's eyes almost bug out at this information, and stutters over her words. She does not know how to take this one in. "How...how old....how old are you then?"

She sits back down on the couch beside Alyssa speaks quietly. "Old enough. I can say that I've lived to see all of the wars between humankind, natural disasters, I've seen how humans have hated enough to kill each other in wars, but care enough to reach out during times of distress and tragedy to help strangers. I've been around for a very long time."

"Can you be killed?"

"Planning something?" Olivia asks with a smile.

Alyssa chuckles a little and is happy to see that she is not offended by any of these questions. "I'm just curious. Are you like a vampire, only die by sunlight or stake through the heart? Does holy water burn your skin? Do you have to be mutilated to be killed?"

"Wow, you watch a lot of TV huh?" Olivia laughs. "I'm not like a vampire as you believe them to be. You are right in thinking manmade weapons do not kill me. I can be stabbed and shot multiple times. They do sting a little, but they do not kill me. I heal quite quickly also. I would say beheading me would kill me, but it is extremely difficult to do that. I can be killed though." Olivia nods. "The arrows that my brother and I are so efficient with are the about the only weapon that can kill us. They are infused with magic. When we are shot with the, it does not take too long for us to die depending on where we are shot obviously. The magic acts as poison that runs through our veins. I hear its extremely painful and definitely fatal."

"Wow! Thats crazy. I just had no idea that all of this was out there." Alyssa sits up straighter and then leans closer to Olivia with an excited look on her face. "I have to ask again. What are your powers?"

Olivia groans and rolls her eyes. "Why do you care?" Alyssa just sits there and waits for the answer. "Fine. My brother and I inherited the same powers. Our parents passed on their three powers to us, very common in our kind. Because of who our parents were, me and Andrew are more powerful. We learned our powers quickly and they grew in strength very fast."

"Yeah, yeah, what are they?

"I can tell you what anyone and everyone is feeling. I'm like an empath, I guess. I know if you're feeling happy, sad, depressed, surprised, even horny."

Alyssa's face fell a little. "That's all? Justin can control electricity and punch walls and all, and you as a purebred can feel what others are feeling?"

Olivia laughed hard at this. "Just so you know, most demons have great strength and speed and agility. I am definitely no exception. Now, on top of being about to detect your feeling, I can control yours too. I can make a person feel however I want. You can have the best day in your life and feel the worst depression in the world and not even know why. You can have the worst day in history and feel overjoyed and not even know why. I can make you feel an extreme attraction to whoever I want." Olivia tells her with a smirk. Alyssa opens her mouth to say something else but Olivia stops her before she can. "I can also read minds. Every thought that crosses your mind, I can hear." Olivia tries to hold back the laughter that seems to be approaching with Alyssa's gasp and a bit of humiliation. "Don't worry. I can control it. I do everything I can to stay out of other people's heads. It's not too hard. Its like how a normal person can tune out background noises, I can tune out your thoughts. They are nothing more than a slight hum in the back of my mind, unless I feel the need to listen." Olivia's smile grows to a mile wide. "There are a few that can fight through. If someone is feeling and thinking something with great intensity, it makes it through but otherwise your thoughts are safe with you." She assures, seeing the relief overcome Alyssa's face.

Olivia quickly changes the subject and distracts Alyssa. There is only so much a person can take. Her inherited powers are all she needs to hear about and obviously satisfies her for now. 

It has been about a month now since Olivia and Justin have seen each other. Justin is trying to deal with the fact that there is someone else out there that is like him. Someone that may understand what he thinks and feels. He wants to talk to her, but he isn't sure how to go about that. First he has to find her, but if and when he does he is unsure of what he would say. how do you talk to someone that admitted to be an evil demon. What do you say someone that is able to explain things to you without? It's weird to him to know that there is someone out there that understands more about him than he does.  

Justin has been trying to find a way to bring up the topic to his mom also. How does someone start a conversation like this? Should he just show his power and hope she is honest and can explain things? Will she truly be what Olivia told him she would be or will talking about it and showing his mom scare her and cause her to freak out and run away from him? He is so unsure of things. In such a short amount of time, his life has be flipped around to a point of no recognition. He was starting to accept who he is and what he can do, and now Olivia walks in and shakes things up.

Olivia, on the other hand, has been trying to avoid Alyssa. The constant questions are becoming unbearable. She keeps getting dragged on some form of date to read the guys thoughts, see if he's a good one. She is continuously being asked more and more about her powers. She may punch a hold through the wall if Alyssa asks 'what am I thinking?' one more time. She knows that Alyssa means no harm but it is tiring. She's not some circus freak to be exploited. She told her sister in confidence but now she is regretting it. 

Alyssa knows that she is annoying Olivia, but she is still trying to get over the shock of her being a demon, making Alyssa half-demon. She cannot help but wonder what abilities she would have had if she had gotten any out of the affair. Would she be able to read minds or control feelings? Or would she be super strong or super fast? She keeps dragging Olivia along to social events because she wants to get her out more, but it ends up turning into a questioning game of 'what is that boy thinking?' and she feels bad. She truly wants to know more about their father, but is afraid to ask, and tries everything she can to keep from thinking about it while Olivia is around for feat she will read her mind. Her confusion is eating her up inside.

***

"I got it!" Rachel's excited voice is heard throughout the house as she yells upon her entrance.

"You just learned how to barge into people's houses without knocking?" Trace jokes from his spot on the couch, in front of the TV, watching the game.

"No, fucker! Where's Justin?" She asks, looking around and seeing him no where in the living room. Trace points towards the kitchen, in the direction in which she proceeds to yell out for Justin. He walks in with an annoyed glare on his face, asking for her not to yell like that. "My bad, but I can't help it. I came up with a great idea that will help you get the information that you wish to have, and I may get a cool new friend to hang out with."

"What are you talking about?" Justin asks.

"Olivia. Demon girl."

"That's probably inappropriate. I'm sure she wouldn't appreciate that." Trace says but still can't help but laugh at the nickname.

"Whatever. I say we have a big cookout and invite all of our friends over. We could eat, drink, and be merry, have a good time and get to know her on a person-to-person level. She can loosen up and get comfortable with us, with you, and then you can get to know each other on a demon-to-demon level." Rachel declares with great satisfaction in herself.

"Sounds good to me. I never turn down an opportunity for bikini-clad girls and alcohol." Trace smiles at the thought.

"You're such a perv." Rachel says and turns back to Justin. "Get the answers you want, the answers you need. Justin, you need this. You can act like you don't care all you want, but we all know that you are wanting to talk to her again."

"She's right. You've been extra sad since you last saw her."

"That's all fine and dandy, but how do you propose to get the invitation to her? None of us know her and I haven't seen her in a month." Justin points out as he turns to go back into the kitchen.

****

"Have you thought about making contact with Justin again?" Alyssa asks as she watches Olivia stare out her bedroom window. "You need to have friends, Olivia. You stay cooped up in here all day, and wander the streets all night. Why don't you get a job? Meet new people and you can either forget about Justin, or possibly run into him again."

"I don't want to make new friends. I can't trust people and they can't trust me. I can never be truly honest about who I am, so there can never be real trust. Besides, I've seen Justin every night since we last talked." Olivia admits never looking away from her window.

"i thought you said you haven't seen him. I just figured that was why you were upset."

Olivia turns to look at Alyssa and rolls her eyes. "No, I believe I said I haven't talked to him. I see him every night. He just hasn't seen me. Its not my fault I'm a much better hunter. His thoughts are very clear on what he wants, and it is not me. He wants to know about his mom and what his friends really think and apparently his cousin thinks I could be really cool, but he doesn't want me around his friends or family. He finds me to be a threat. I don't blame him." Olivia shrugs and goes back to staring out the window. 

"You could try talking to him again. If anything, all these conversations can help you improve your people skills." Alyssa smiles.

"You got jokes, huh? I'll think about it. I'm honestly waiting for him to be sure he wants to see me again."

***

"This is stupid. I shouldn't have brought you out here." Justin tells Trace and Rachel who insisted on following him out this night. "Its dangerous out here at night."

"And you are a great bodyguard. I'm not worried, and we could help. Spread out."

"You don't even know what she looks like." Justin points out with a small smile.

"You have a point. I was thinking since you don't have that great of history with her, maybe we could convince her to come hangout with us." Rachel shrugs and then laughs. "Not to mention, if she does attack, it'll be fun to watch you go all overprotective on her ass." Rachel starts to say something else when she here's something move behind her. 

She jerks around and sees a cat rummaging in a trash can. She chuckles nervously when she turns back to Justin and Trace with a little embarrassment showing on her face. 

"Obviously you two shouldn't have come."

"Hey, don't banish me because baby girl over here is scared of a cat." Trace pokes fun of his friend, receiving the middle finger from her.

Justin shakes his head at their childish antics and begins to walk some more, but stops when he sees someone standing in a shadowy area ahead of them. It has to be Olivia. He starts walking towards her but slows his steps as he gets closer. That is not Olivia. In fact the person is not female. He looks back at Trace and Rachel and signals them to stay behind, and he continues his way towards the shadow. As he approaches, he notices the gun and the knife, one in each hand.

"I must say, boy, you have some big balls. Most people would have walked in the other direction after seeing somebody standing in the dark, yet you come closer to me. You see my gun and knife and you still come closer even though you have none. Do I not scare you?" The guy laughs as he takes a few steps towards Justin. His tattoos are more clear now and according to the ink, he is a member of a very well-known street gang that is known for their ruthlessness. 

"I apologize. I thought you were someone else. I believe we will be going now." Justin says turning to leave, and get his friends to safety. 

"I don't think that will be happening. I've decided I'm bored and you three will be perfect entertainment for me, especially Sweet Thang over there." He smiles towards Rachel.

Rachel is scared out of her mind, but still finds herself wanting to throw up at the thought of this guy touching her in any way. Trace pulls her behind him, shielding her from their sight as if it will make them forget her. Justin looks back at them and blames himself for this. He never should have agreed to let them come with him.

"Please just let us go." Justin asks but knows that it will get him nowhere. "If you are desperate for entertainment, keep me and do as you will, but let them go." He tries to offer with little hope.

"As great as that offer sounds, I doubt you would be much entertainment for me." He laughs. "Besides, who will entertain them?" He waves his hand and five more guys show up, with the same gang symbols tattooed on their skin and all holding a weapon of some kind.

Rachel's gasp of fear can be heard by everyone and works like Miracle Grow on the leader's evil smile. Justin tries to slowly back up towards them, but the leader points his gun out demanding he stop all movement or his friends get the bullet.

"Look, we don't want any trouble. We just want to get home." Justin tries one more time with no success.

"Justin, just take care of them." Trace yells at him. 

Justin's entire body tenses up with the statement. "I won't do it. What if I can't control it? I won't do it unless it's absolutely necessary." He shakes his head and tries to calm himself down.

"What are you fuckers mumbling about?" The leader demands. "You know what, I'm tired and bored of this. Take those two. I believe our fun will start with tying this lad up and letting him watch as we kill the male and have some fun with the female." The orders are made and four of the men move to retrieve Trace and Rachel as the leader and another move to restrain Justin.

"Justin, please!" Rachel's fear is loud and clear through her sobs, screaming as two of the men each grab one of her arms.

"Leave her the fuck alone." Trace yells as he is being pulled away by the other two. "Justin, just do it!"

They are able to separate Trace and Rachel from each other by about ten feet and they are each close to being about 30 feet from Justin. They are all struggling to free themselves as something seems to fall from the sky in the middle of it all. 

"What the hell? Where did you come from?" The leader demands to know, looking at the female turning in circles to check out the situation.

"Olivia!" Justin yells out, hoping she is there to help.

"Olivia? This is just perfect. We were hoping for more entertainment and fun and here you show up. Its not even my birthday." His laugh would send chills down most people's backs.

Olivia stands up straight and stares him down for a few seconds and then nods. "Sorry I didn't come with a bow but here's the thing. This shirt is not mine. I'm borrowing it from my sister, and she will be royally pissed if I mess it up. So what I am hoping is that you will let my friends here go without fight, otherwise I'm going to have to fight back and then things always get messy. Next thing I know, the shirt is stained or torn and then I'm in trouble." Olivia talks as she walks closer to Trace and Rachel, assuming they would need more help than Justin. 

Please don't let anything happen to them. I couldn't bare it. This is all my fault. Justin's thoughts rang loud in Olivia's ears, along with the the pleading thoughts of the other two.

"You seem to be a no-nonsense, straight-to-the-point type of guy, so I'm not going to screw around here. Here's the deal. You let these three go and never mess with them again, or you can not and those guns are going to end up in the most uncomfortable places. I prefer not to go through the second one, because that's where the mess begins." She nods as if she had just stated some simple fact about science or math.

The leader starts to laugh again and his men tighten their grips on everyone. "There's no deal. They will be all dead before you can even think about where you want those guns to go."

"Sure about that?" She questions with a grin of her own.

With a simple nod and shrug from the leader, it isn't seconds before she is standing beside one of the men holding Rachel. Shock is obvious on everyone's face. She throws her arms around the two men's shoulders and leans forward a little to place her chin on Rachel's right shoulder. She could here whimpering and Rachel jumps at the touch.

"Well this is a happy group over here, excellent with the group hugging." She smiles. "I'm feeling like a nice person tonight. I think its something in the air. I'm going to give you one more chance." Olivia stands back up straight. "You let them go and I let you live without guns shoved up your asses. Personally I think thats a fair trade and I suggest you go with it." 

"Fuck off!"

"Fair enough. You do have a right to make your own choices. I just hate that your choice affects so many other people." She states.

Within seconds she has pulled the two men off Rachel and has dislocated at least one shoulder on each of them. In a blur, she moves over to Trace and pulls the men off while pushing Trace towards Rachel to help comfort her. It isn't long before all four men are lying on the ground beat badly and bleeding profusely.

"I'm no doctor, but I'm thinking that these men have lost a lot of blood and will die very soon if you don't get them to a hospital. Not to mention the handguns in their asses cannot be good for their health. I don't think they were very clean, and to be honest, I think a couple of them were loaded." She raises her eyebrows and shrugs.

"What the hell are you?!" The leader has released Justin and moved to point his gun at Olivia now. The other man that was holding Justin has let go and is doing his best to sneak away. 

"I don't think so." Justin yells as he holds his hands up and an electric current looks to shoot out hitting the guy in the leg. 

The man falls to the ground immediately in excruciating pain. 

"Oh wow. That will definitely leave a mark." Olivia laughs walking up to stand beside Justin. "You want him or can I have him?"

"This one is mine." He states, anger seeping out in his voice. 

Olivia throws her hands up in surrender and walks back to Rachel and Trace to check on them, but mainly shield them from seeing their close friend this way.

A loud thump and scream signals that Justin decided to take the first punch, but after that it is all questionable. Olivia did not watch (mainly because she could see every move through his thoughts) but she made sure the other two could not see. She knew what Justin struggled with and he hated the thought of his friends seeing him in this light, and figured she owed him that. She is the reason he made the decision to come out here looking for her.

***

The four decided to move to a safer location which is why they are all sitting around Justin's living room now. Justin has his head bowed and resting in his hands which are propped up by his knees. He can't bare to look at his friends right now. Trace and Rachel seem extremely calm for what just happened to them, but right now he is not going to question it. Olivia is sitting in a chair across the room from everyone. She remains silent as she is being stared at like she was some strange new virus under the microscope. She avoided reading their minds, but she could easily tell what they were thinking by the looks on their faces. They wanted to ask so many questions.

She sighs in defeat and looks down. She knew it was coming, she had just hoped it would have been a lot later. "Go ahead." She looks up at them, gritting her teeth a little, and gives them permission. "Ask away."

"What are you? How long have you known? What abilities do you have? Do you kill people? Can you show us your powers?" The questions come out like a whirlwind. It is like they can't take a breath, afraid she will change her mind and stop them. This is definitely not the reaction she expected out of normal people, but she assumes it is from being friends with someone who has 'special abilities.' 

She sits back in her chair as if the questions were physically pushing her back, blowing her away.

"That's enough." Justin speaks up as he lifts his head. "She came here on her own accord. Don't make her regret that. I'm sure she doesn't want to answer a million questions. Let her answer a few and then leave her alone."

Olivia is thankful and almost wishes that she could project her thoughts like she can feelings so she can let him know that she appreciated that. "I can answer a few, but I do need to get home." She offers politely in hopes this will control everything.

Rachel nods and can barely keep herself form jumping up and down on the couch where she is presently bouncing in her seat. "So you really are like Justin, what are your abilities? Can you shoot electric bolts too? Fireballs? Spikes?" Her eyes are lit up like a small child waiting for her parents to reveal her birthday surprise.

Olivia laughs at this. She knew they would want to know, and assumed they would picture her in a certain way. "No currents, fireballs, or spikes. Sorry. I do have great strength, speed, and agility. I'm a kick ass boxer, and the best archer alive." She really didn't want to go into detail of her powers again at the moment and hopes that the generic stuff works for now.

It seems to even though Rachel looks a little disappointed with the answer. Maybe after some time, she'll reveal her true powers when she's not too worried about how they will react. 

"How long have you've known you were..um, demon?" Trace feels uneasy using this word to describe anyone, especially someone who just saved their lives. "I mean, Justin didn't realize his abilities until he was around thirteen. Is it like a puberty thing?" He asks, causing Rachel to roll her eyes and Justin to groan.

"I've actually known all my life. With both parents being..." she knows they are uneasy with 'demon' so she tries to find another word, "..um..gifted it is hard to not know. They are very open with who they are and they taught me and my brother at a very young age how to control our abilities and to be able to use them. With Justin being only half-gifted, he probably came into them late or maybe just didn't realize what he was able to do. I mean, with no one to guide you, it is hard to tell." She tries not to start up any sore topics.

"Are you parents evil? Are you evil?" 

"Rachel! That is uncalled for!" Justin intervenes. 

"Its okay. Its nice to be around people who are so straight-forward, no secret agendas." Olivia cuts in, trying to ease the tension. "My parents are, i guess what you call evil. They have no care for anyone but themselves, and will do anything to get what they want, usually ending with someone dead. Me and my brother were their pride and joy. They raised us to be like them, but more powerful. We did all of their dirty work. I can't lie, I was not good by any means, but I have changed. Things happened and now I am pretty much on the run and in hiding from the family and do not kill as I did before." She quickly explains, leaving out details, but trying to get enough across so they don't ask and at the same time try to show that she is not in the sharing mood.

"How old is your brother? Is he still evil?" 

Rachel seems to be the only one excited about this. The other two are listening very attentively, but area almost scared to ask anything. 

"My brother is two years older than me." It is the truth but not the whole truth. Is that the same as lying? "Last time I checked he was still evil. I believe he enjoys it too much to turn."

"Well I think thats enough for the night. Sorry about everything." Justin stands up from the couch and faces Olivia who follows suit. "You shouldn't have had to jump in. I'm sure you had no desire to hurt anyone else." Justin sounds as if he is trying to convince himself. "Also, sorry about these two. They seem to have handled tonight rather well and are now full of all kinds of questions that aren't any of their business. I'm sure you need to get home and to bed." He walks her to the door, and opens it for her.

"It really was no problem. I'm glad I could help. You all seem very close and I'm glad nothing happened to them or to you." Olivia reached up to place her hand on his arm in a comforting manner. "You have great friends. They care about you deeply. Don't take that for granted." She gives him a small smile and then turns away.

"Olivia." It comes out as almost a whisper. "I, um, thank you. They mean a lot to me, and I don't know what I would have done if something had happened. Also, thanks for covering for me. I don't like to get that angry and its almost like I can't control myself when I get that way." His face is covered with shame.

She reaches out to him again. "We can talk tomorrow. I think we both need it."

He nods and thanks her one more time before she leaves and he goes to bed to think about everything he wanted and needed to know. 

"I can't believe you all went to meet Olivia, and didn't invite me." Cara complains. "I think I have a right to meet her too." 

"Well the next time our lives are being threatened in all kinds of ways, we'll be sure to pause it all to invite you." Rachel rolls her eyes, not in the mood to deal with this today.

"What Rachel is trying to say," Justin tries to keep the emotions and tension to a minimum, "is that it was all unplanned. I was going out to see if I could find her to invite her to the cookout you all wanted, and these two showed up before I left and invited themselves along. There were no invites made. In fact, I told them not to come along." He glares at the two as they simply shrug their shoulders.

"Is she as evil as you thought? What are her abilities?" Cara asks, now curious what may start to hang out around them. 

Cara did not trust as easy as the other two. She is more like Justin with this. She worried about her best friend. She's known Justin for many years, and has seen him heartbroken many times and he pulls back into his shell more and more every time it happens. She cannot bare to think what will happen if he starts to trust Olivia in hopes that she can help him and she turns on him too. He will be devastated. 

 "She's not evil!" Rachel exclaims as if she were cheering about it. "She only said that she has 'great strength, speed, and agility.' I'm honestly disappointed. I was hoping for something extremely cool." 

"Well sounds to me like that those talents come along with being able to suck people's blood. Maybe this is a good thing that she doesn't have any extra abilities. In case she doesn't turn out to be who she says she is, Justin will have an advantage."

"Always the pessimistic one, Cara. And she's not a vampire." Trace points out. "She actually seems like a really cool chick. She could be fun to hang out with."

"Oh shit!" Rachel jumps up. "We didn't invite her to the cookout. We got caught up with her rescuing us, that we forgot to ask."

Trace reminds Rachel that Justin is meeting up with Olivia today. He can ask her then. Speaking of Justin causes the three to look around and notice that he is no longer in the room with them. He had somehow snuck out without them noticing, probably to go brood. The three just ignore this and continue to talk about what other questions they would love to ask Olivia and talk about what kind of evil things they think she did in her past, and then they moved onto discussing what it would be like if her family caught up with her and the battle that would ensue. 

***

It is late afternoon when Olivia shows up at Justin's and rings the doorbell. Rachel answers it and loudly yells for Justin as she ushers her in. 

"Do you all live here with Justin?" Olivia asks seeing that Trace is there also and another girl.

"No, but they might as well. It's a large house and they are here all the time, usually getting drunk and passing out somewhere." Justin says pointedly at them but smiles to show his humor.

Olivia smiles and looks around but tries to avoid looking at Cara. The uneasy feeling coming from her was definitely intense. There is hatred, distrust, jealousy, and fear filling the girl to the top. Olivia knows she has not earned this girls trust and she has no reason to expect it immediately, but she assumed that she would be as open to her as the others.

"Well, Cara, does this prove she's not a vampire?" Trace jokes around leading to the most confused look on Olivia's face. "The sun is still out and she's able to walk around without burning up."

Cara rolls her eyes, disguising her embarrassment with annoyance. 

"I'm not a vampire." Olivia simply states to make sure they are all aware of this fact.

"Oh we know." Rachel tells her. "Cara hear is just a paranoid hater. By the way, this is Cara, one of our longtime friends. She's not as bad as she seems, just needs to learn to trust a little and be a little optimistic. Cara, this is Olivia, Justin's...and our...new friend. She's good people so play nice." Rachel introduces them.

Olivia would have moved to shake her hand or something, but Cara clearly has no desire to do so. "Its nice to meet you." Cara mumbles a 'yeah' and averts attention to the TV, or at least looks as if she did.

"In case Justin forgets to ask you, we are having a cookout and you are invited. We were planning to have it as a way for you to come meet us and for all of us to get to know each other, but since we already have the meeting part over with, you can just come and hangout and enjoy the festivities." Rachel offers.

Olivia's smile grows and her face glows. She may make a friend or two after all. There is no way she could turn this down. Alyssa would hate her forever if she did. "Alyssa." She unknowingly whispers out loud.

"Excuse me?" Justin is confused. He had heard what she said, but has no idea what it means.

"Sorry. Alyssa. She is my sister, well half-sister, but I see her as just 'sister.' I hate to impose or anything, but is there a chance I could bring her along? She would love to meet you all, and I would probably be more comfortable knowing that she's there. Apparently I have horrible people skills and she's good at keeping me in check."

"Of course! Bring her along. The more the merrier is what I say." Rachel exclaims. 

"Thank you so much. I'll get the details and everything from Justin. Oh and Alyssa doesn't have any special abilities. Her mother is human." She informs them and sees two faces drop in slight disappointment and one just glare back.

Justin announces that he would like to leave, and Olivia moves to follow him out the door, telling everyone it was nice to see them or again or meet them for the first time. It was a nice warm day with a cool breeze, so they choose to just walk around and talk. Its quiet for the first couple of blocks, neither knowing how they want to start the conversation.

"I must apologize for my friends." Justin starts finally. "Rachel and Trace see all this as some cool real life comic book superhero movie type thing playing out. They mean well though. They can get overwhelmed, I know, but if they ever get too much, please feel free to tell them to back off. They won't be offended. I've warned them several times that some people need space."

"They are fine. Its amusing to see someone so excited. I guess with being surrounded by it my whole life, I forget that not everyone is so familiar with it. I don't mind a few questions." Olivia tells him, seeing him relax a little. She pauses for a short moment to think over her next thought. "I worry that Cara will never like me. If me being around will cause a problem among you and your friends, I don't think I can allow that to happen. You all are obviously very close and I don't want to be responsible for any problems."

"Cara will be fine. She'll just need some time. Like you said, we've all be friends for many years and she was there when I first figured out what I do. She was there to see me struggle with it and as I fought to get control over it. She knows how hard it is for me at times, and she is very protective. She doesn't want to see me hurt." He tries to explain. "Trace and Rachel know all of this too and can be very protective also, but I think they want to see me happy. They want me to get some answers, and they know you can be someone to help me get them. Please don't think Cara is cold and heartless. She just cares about me, sometimes I think she cares too much."

Olivia nods. She can understand the overprotectiveness. She may not have been a good person at the time, but when she lived at home, she did everything she could to keep those close to her safe, her brother and her trusted guard. If anyone hurt either one of them, blood would be shed and hell would be paid. She may not go to the extreme now and she knows Justin's friends would never be so ruthless in their ways, but the feelings are just the same. She feels herself growing extremely protective of Alyssa, and knows that in due time she will feel the same about Justin and his friends.

"I will do my best to give Cara her time and space and earn her trust and respect." Olivia tells Justin which makes his smile grow and almost overtake his face. "How about you and I get some food and find a nice quiet place and talk. I'm sure you have lots of question of your own, and I would like to help you find answers to them.

"That would be great. Thank you," he is extremely grateful for this opportunity. He may finally have the answers he has been searching for ever since the second his fist broke through that wall when he was thirteen.

 *** 

The duo found a nice empty area at the city park. There is a bench that sits on the edge of some woods where a few people followed trails through. They are able to sit and look out over the entire park, where they could watch families playing catch with their kids and dog. Kids are flying kites in the comfortable breeze. Couples sit out blankets and have a nice picnic. The two on the bench could easily be mistaken for a cute couple. They are sitting close so they don't have to speak very loudly, attracting unwanted attention to them. 

Looks can be deceiving because when most couples are usually talking about how beautiful the weather is, the perfect date, whether a puppy would be too much to get, future plans, and so on. This couple is discussing what it feels like to harm another being, what it is like to hide who you are, the dangers of being around them, and so on. This couple is definitely not enjoying some pleasant picnic in the park.

"Why won't you ask me what you really want to ask me?" Olivia questions the man sitting beside her, turned so they were facing each other. "Are you afraid of what the answer will be?"

He doesn't respond right away. Instead, he chooses to sit quietly and ponder. Does he really want to know? "Is my mom evil? Is she like you were and then change when she met my dad?"

Olivia bites her lip with nervousness. She wishes she could just make him feel better, but it wouldn't be fair for him. He needs to feel these feelings or he will never get to what he really wants and needs to know about himself. "I honestly cannot tell you. I do not know your mother. I'm not from around here, so she could have easily been either." The anguish is clear on his face. "I wish I could tell you. The only way you are really going to know is if you ask her yourself. You need to talk to her, Justin. Let her know that you are special and you want to know more. She may be more open to it than you think."

"I don't know. How would I approach her about it? What would I ask? Why has she been hiding it form me all this time? Do I really want to know?" He drops his head down and studies his fidgeting hands. He is upset.

Olivia is torn from the pain and confusion and self-doubt that Justin is feeling. It is so deep and intense. She can't ignore it, and its tearing her up inside. She needs to find a way to help him. "How about I go with you? Maybe she'll open up if we both are there willing to listen and not judge. She'll see that you are needing answers and I am there for support." She offers him a bit of encouragement and lets him know that she is here to help him. 

Justin, after some coaxing from Olivia, finally agrees to talk to his mom about this. If anyone can tell him who he is, it will be her. He considers himself extremely lucky to have run into Olivia, or he may never have known. Whether they like it or not, they are in this together and they have both made a new friend. 

Justin drove him and Olivia to his mother's house. On the way, he called to make sure she was home and let her know he was on his way along with a new friend, and he needed to talk to her about something important 

"Are you sure you are ready for this?" Olivia asks, feeling his nervousness. 

"I don't have a choice. Its past time for her to be honest with me." He states.

Olivia reaches over and grabs onto Justin's hand and feels some of his nervousness ease up. "What is going to be worst? Her finding out that you know about her or you leading her to believe that you are bringing a girl home to break important news like....engagement or pregnancy?" Olivia smiles over at him and gets one in return.

"That is a good question. I guess we're about to find out because here we are." He pulls into the driveway of a very nice and large home. "We come from a long line of family money. That is what I've been told all my life anyway. I wonder now where it really came from." He more mumbles to himself than to Olivia.

They get out of the truck and when Justin comes around to Olivia's side, he grabs her hand. It surprises Olivia, but knows that it somehow comforts him so she goes along with it. They make their way up the sidewalk and notices that Justin's pace slows more as they make their way closer to the front door. He reaches the door and rings the doorbell and follows it with a knock. As they wait for his mom to come to the door, Justin starts fidgeting really bad, bouncing and swaying around. Olivia tightens her grip on his hand, letting him know that she is here for him, hoping it calms him down. He looks down at her and smiles a little and stops moving around. 

It isn't long before the door is swung open and a middle-aged lady with blond curly hair is standing in front of them with only a screen door between them. 

"Justin, its always good to have you come around. Are you staying for dinner?" She asks with a huge smile as she opens the screen door for them.

"I don't know right now. I've come to talk to you about something."

"Well come on in, and why don't you intro-" she cuts off as soon as she focuses on Olivia, her smile immediately disappearing. 

"Mom, this is Olivia Haywood," he ignores the change in her demeanor. "Olivia, this is my mom, Lynn."

"Sweetie, can I talk to you for a minute...alone?" 

"That's not necessary. I believe anything you have to say, you can say in front of Olivia." He raises his eyebrows at her.

"I don't think thats true." 

"I do. Why don't you go ahead and try. You'd be amazed how open-minded she can be." He challenges his mother.

"Justin." She tries one more time but sees that he will not agree to it and sighs in defeat. "How well do you two know each other?" She asks staring at Olivia. 

"Well enough in my opinion. I do think we'll become really good friends" Justin's answer causes a gasp from both women and Olivia looks up at him and nods her agreement.

"Be serious. You don't know her! She's not who you think she is. She's not a good person." Lynn stresses. "You just have to believe me on this one. She's not good."

"Why would you think that? Is it because as my mother, you don't think any female will be good enough for me? Or is it because you're scared I'm going to run off? I know, you think she may be a gold digger to take all of our family's money when she divorces me after only a year of marriage." His mom opens her mouth, but she doesn't speak. She keeps her eyes on Olivia and her stare becomes a glare. Justin moves a couple of steps around his mother and looks around. He stops suddenly and loudly state, "I know what it must be!" 

Lynn looks at her son, but quickly looks back at Olivia. She is afraid to take her eyes off Olivia. "I don't think you'll understand."

"You'd be surprised. You see, I think you don't like her because she's a demon, an evil demon at that." He dares her to deny it.

There should have been a loud thud to go along with Lynn's jaw and the way it fell slack in shock. She looks back and forth between Justin and Olivia. "How...you...you know who she is and you still want to be around her? I thought I raised you better than that?"

"How would that be exactly? Raise me in complete darkness of who I really am, never telling me the truth so I can be lost and confused? People think its hard going through puberty, but what about me? I had developed acne, awkward growth spurts, and to top it all off I could punch through walls, run faster than any car, oh and lets not forget about the deadly electricity that shoots through my body." He says holding his hands up at the end to show flashes of currents flowing between his hands. "Tell me mother. Is this how you raised me? Did you raise me to constantly worry if I would ever be able to hold a girl's hand without electrocuting her? Did you raise me to always wonder if my friends see me as a freak?"

"I'm so sorry." Lynn's tears filled her eyes. "I honestly hoped that you would grow to be normal. Different from me. I didn't want you to have to go through what my family and I had to go through." Tears flowed down her cheek in a steady stream. She looks at Justin with such sadness. "I was hoping that she would never put you through what we went through." She looks over at Olivia, who gives her a confused look.

"Look, no disrespect or offense, but I have no idea who you are. It doesn't surprise me that you may know who I am, but you can't blame everything on me." Olivia tries to reason with her. She can't stop herself from looking over at Justin who now holds a questionable look. 

"You don't remember? I guess there were just too many for you then." Lynn walks closer to her.

A few seconds pass by before Olivia yells out in pain as she grabs her head. Justin moves fast to catch her as she falls to the floor. "Olivia, what's wrong?" He looks up to his mom, "what are you doing to her?! Stop it!" 

Olivia looks up at Justin with tears. She then looks over to Lynn, "I'm so sorry. I didn't know."

"What's going on? What didn't you know?" Justin is worried for her. She's demon, and he assumed it would take a lot to bring her down, and here she is on her knees with tears in her eyes. "Momma, please stop!" He begs her.

"I'm not doing it. This is all her." She states. "She's finally feeling the pain, the fear, the desperation that she has caused so many, that she has caused me and my family. It is coming back on her, and she can't handle it. How does it feel to really know what your victims are feeling? Is this what got you and your brother excited? Seeing the pain you were causing others, fear you created as you hunted others for fun, and the desperation that each felt, hoping you would spare their lives or more so the lives of their loved ones. Is that what got you all excited when you hunted my father down and killed him as he did everything he could to save his family?"

Justin stood up quickly. "Grandpa? I thought you said he had died in a house fire." He looks at his mom in disbelief. He turns back to Olivia, "did you really do those things? I...I don't un-....I don't understand. How are you making her feel them?"

"I'm not. Those are her wonderful special abilities hurting her like that. She used them so many times to hurt others. It was only a matter of time they would turn on her." Lynn sounds satisfied with her pain and as if she is enjoying it.

"What abilities? What could do this to her?"

"So you don't know her as well as you thought?" She questions with an I-told-you-so attitude. "So much for honesty, huh?" She looks down at Olivia where she remains kneeling, but is no longer grabbing her head in pain. She looks back up at Justin who looks like a lost boy in a department store, just looking for someone who can show him where to go, what to do. "Justin, I don't want to hurt you, but you need to know who she really is. She's an empath demon. She can feel your emotions, but at the same time can project any emotion she wants back on you, make you feel however she chooses. She uses them to control people like puppets. She can read your thoughts, know what you are thinking almost before you even do. That is why it was so difficult to get away from her when she was after you. She killed so many people." Lynn walks over to him, and tries to reach out for him, to comfort him, but he quickly pulls away and steps back a couple of steps. 

"Please don't touch me. Just....please." He breathes out.

"Justin, I'll explain everything. Just come sit down, calm down, and I'll talk." Lynn pleads slowly walking into the living room. 

Justin nods sadly and moves to follow his mother. He pauses and looks back at Olivia. She is no longer kneeling for she has sat back with her head down. He stops in front of her and reaches his hand out to her, helping her stand up.

She looks up at him. "I'm sorry. I should have told you a little about me, to warn you. If you would like me to leave, and give you time with your mother, I will understand and go now."

"I don't want you to go. I'm definitely taken aback by the new information, but I trust you when you tell me that you are good now. I need someone here with me when I  talk to her, and you are the only one that can truly understand. Please stay." He holds his hand out to her again, this time for her to take and to hold.

When they walk into the living room, Lynn has some tea set out on the table and cringes when she sees her son holding her worst enemy's hand. Should I tell him everything? Inform him of all your powers? Tell him how you used them so many times and in so many ways just to amuse yourself? Lynn's thoughts are read by Olivia, causing her to lower her head in great shame.

"Momma, I need to know who I am. What am I? Who are you?"

She sighs in defeat. She knows that he needs to know and that she needs to tell him.

There is loud joyous music that can be heard through the windows of a home. Anyone walking by would know that whoever lives here is celebrating something. There is music, dancing, and cake. The adults were sitting around talking about whatever passes though their minds, and the children are running around playing whatever game came to mind. 

"Happy birthday, Lynn."

"Thanks, momma. This is the best day ever!" She exclaims with the biggest smile on her face. 

"Well you only turn eight once, right?"

Lynn nods and runs off to join her friends to play a goofy game. The day passes into evening. The guests slowly disappear leaving the birthday girl home with her mom and older brother. 

"Bubba, come play with me!" Lynn yells at her brother.

"No, I'm tired. You're party wore me out. I'm getting old." He smiles at her.

"You're not old. You're only thirteen." She laughs at him, but she isn't hurt by his rejection. She just goes along playing with her new dolls and toys she got earlier in the day. She is skipping around on the front porch when she looks out and sees her father approaching from the woods. He's walking quickly, but she assumes its so he can get to his precious princess.

"Daddy!" She screams out and runs to him, jumping into his arms. "I hope you got Lily home safely. I'm glad you are back. You can play dress-up with me. I'll dress up in all my pretty new clothes, and then you can tell me how pretty I am," she rambles on with such great excitement. She barely breathes between her words.

He doesn't say anything. He just holds her as he walks them to the house. When they get inside the door, he places Lynn down on the ground and leans down to her level. "Listen, princess, I need you to listen to me and do me a favor. Go get all your pretty clothes and put them in your travel bag."

"Why, Daddy? Are we going on a trip for my birthday?" The girls eyes lit up.

"Its a surprise. Now go and tell your Bubba to do the same." He tells her and stands back up to go search for his wife.

"Joy?!" He yells out. "Joy, where are you at?"

"I'm right here." She smiles at him when she comes around the corner. "I'm exhausted. Today was a long but happy day." She opens her arms to wrap around her husband but he does not move. "Henry? What's wrong? What happened while you were gone?"

"Joy, you must get your things. I've told the kids to do the same. I need you to get some clothes, grabbed the kids and we need to get out of here now." 

"You're scaring me. What's going on?"

"Just do it. I'll check to see if the kids are finished with theirs. Hurry!"

He leaves her to go find their kids in their bedrooms. Lynn has all of her dresses thrown around. She's upset because they won't all fit in her case, but Henry tells her to pick her favorite and only take those. He goes to his son's room to check on him and he's in there just throwing a few pairs of pants and shirts in haphazardly with some undergarments. After seeing the kids are following directions, he goes to his own bedroom to find his wife struggling to pack as she shakes in fear.  He walks up and pulls her into a hug and kisses the top of her head to calm her.

"We must go." He simply states, closing the case and carrying to the front door, calling out to his kids to meet him there.

"Where are we going?" Lynn asks still excited about the surprise visit.

"We are going to go on a long trip," is all he says as he grabs Lynn's small bag in his other hand. 

The small family walk outside and stop when they see a young beautiful woman standing in their front yard, watching them with a curious smile.

"Henry?" Joy questions.

"Henry, you weren't leaving were you? You would be dearly missed." The young woman speaks out as she steps forward.

As she moves forward, the family can see three men move forward, but stay behind her.

"Please, just leave my family alone! They've done nothing wrong. It's not fair to them. If you have to, punish me but leave them alone." Henry pleads with the woman.

"Now, now, Henry. I believe we could have prevented all of this. You are the one that chose to go against her wishes. You knew the consequences, yet you still chose to do as you did. Don't make me out to be the bad guy." The woman moved even closer. "You know you only made this more difficult, running as you did, but I have to admit you did make it more fun and interesting for me." She laughs. "And because you play the game so well with me, I'll give your family a small head start. We'll say three minutes. Thats fair I think. You, on the other hand, must stay behind. Keep me company." She smirks.

Henry closes his eyes tight and nods. He turns to see his family. His daughter is no longer wearing a smile, but a look of fear and confusion. His son's face is covered with amazement toward the woman, but grief for his father. His wife's face shows so much, grief, anger, fear, and love. 

He gives them all a tight hug and shares his love. When he got to his wife, he hugged her tighter and longer whispering in her ear.

Joy grabs their children and leaves the porch to get away. The children are yelling for their father to follow, but he merely shakes his head.

Lynn struggles the most, so Joy grabs hers and Lynn's bags and hand them to her son. She picks up Lynn and carries her away from her father, her hero. As Lynn looks back, screaming and reaching for her father, she sees him shoot electric bolts at the woman, only to have the deflected. The woman slowly makes her way to him, and just as he is almost out of sight, Lynn see her father fall to his knees and then all the way to the ground.

"Olivia's mother wanted my brother to join her guard and me to join her in their home to work. My father denied her, wanting more for his family. He didn't want my brother to be trained into a careless killer or me into some object she could use for her own benefits. When daddy denied her, she swore she would kill us all. Olivia, her best hunter, was sent to carry out the order. My father was able to create a spell that would transport us across the world as soon as we were out of sight so we could get away. That's how we got away alive. Daddy wasn't so lucky." Lynn finishes her story, her eyes pouring tears down her face.

Justin's own eyes were watering, cheeks tear-stained. Olivia looks over at him and finds it hard to look at him in such pain. She closes her eyes and turns to face away from him, taking a deep and painful breath. It hurt her to breathe knowing she caused the family so much pain. This makes her understand a little about herself. Blake did not deserve to die, but she definitely deserved to lose him. She deserved the pain that she felt from the loss and the loneliness that followed. This family lost so much, and she knows that this isn't the only family that she did this to. 

"I...I...I have to go," she stumbles over her words and she nearly stumbles over her own feet on her rush to get out of the house. She needs to get away from them, get away from their thoughts, their emotions. She feels like she is dying, and its her own fault. 

The door to the apartment opens and slams shut. The heavy footsteps can be heard making their path from the entrance to the bedroom. Alyssa watched from where she was sitting on the couch watching some cheesy made-for-tv movie. She is aware that Olivia had gone to talk with Justin, so this cannot be a good sign. 

Alyssa gets up and makes her way to check on Olivia. The door is open, so she can watch without disturbing. She quietly stands in the doorway and watches as Olivia lies on her stomach sideways across her bed with her head hanging off. She appears to be absentmindedly picking at the carpet, out in her own world.

"You can come in. I heard you coming, I feel your worry, and I need someone to talk to." Olivia rolls over and onto her side to face her sister.

Alyssa nods and joins Olivia on the bed. She sits at the foot in indian style, waiting for her to open up. 

"Justin's mom knows who I am."

"Well didn't you assume she would. I mean as a fellow demon and all. You did say you were pretty infamous, family very well-known and all, right?" Alyssa asks, knowing there is more to the statement.

"I did assume she would know my name, but I didn't plan on her knowing me on a personal level. I didn't recognize her at first. I should have, but she was right." Olivia's thoughts are randomly put together, and Alyssa is doing what she can to piece them together in understanding. "She was right about me. There were so many, and I can't remember most of them. She remembers me though. When she was eight, on her birthday, I killed her father while he was trying to save his family. They got away. I do remember hunting them down afterwards, sure I'd find them, and I got so pissed because I couldn't. Others paid the price for my rage. There's no way Justin could ever forgive me. I wouldn't be able to forgive me." She summarizes the story for Alyssa, not wanting to get into the details. 

"You don't know. He trusted you enough to take you along to go see his mom. He trusted you enough to go talk to his mom in the first place. If it weren't for you, he wouldn't know who he is and where he comes from. Today was a huge breakthrough for him, and that is because of you. The conversation didn't go as you had liked. You turned out to be the villain, but you knew you were going to be the hero.Just see it this way, because of you, he is able to talk to his mom about his life, where he comes from, and maybe for the first time in his life, know and understand and perhaps even accept who he is. You helped. If he can't see that, then maybe, just maybe, you weren't meant to help him any more than what you already have." Alyssa rubs her sister's back soothingly. 

"I killed his grandfather. He has never known his grandfather and its all because of me. His mom has lived in fear most of her life because of me." Olivia mumbles into her arms as she is lying with her face the bed. She lifts her head and looks at Alyssa. "Would you forgive me if I had done that to you?"

Alyssa is quiet. She does not know how to answer it. She wants to tell Olivia that she'd forgive her and that she's a good person and that everything will be perfect, but she doesn't know. "I can't really say. I'm sorry. I wish it weren't like this, but you can't change. Just learn from it." 

Olivia rolls her eyes. "Learn from it? Seriously, this is not some case of not studying for a test and then failing it."

Alyssa rolls her eyes in return and gets up off the bed. "Life sucks for us all. Granted, you were the reason why some people or whatever they were had bad luck, but you are good now. All you can do is continue to be good and try to do what you can to help out." 

Olivia's cell phone rang and vibrated across her bedside table. She rolls over and grabs it to see who would be calling her.There are only a handful of people who have her number. She takes a deep breath in when she sees the name flash across the screen. 

Alyssa notices the look that is similar to panic. "I'll be in the other room." She walks out and shuts the door.

Olivia opens her phone and places it up to her ear but doesn't say anything. She hears his voice and wants to say something, but her voice seems to be nonexistent at the moment as she tries to figure out what she's going to say to him. After he calls her name out several times and gets no response he finally yells into the phone causing her to jump. "I'm sorry. Hello," she responds with a flat tone.

"Well hello to you. I thought maybe the phone was broken or you were deaf. You ok?" He laughs.

"I'm fine. I should be asking you that? Why are you calling me? I expected you to hate me forever."

Justin's laugh gets louder. "I'm okay. After you left, me and my mom talked a bit about all that happened to her family and all of us. I will tell you the truth, the woman despises you, but I guess I can understand where she's coming from. I'm calling you because you left in a big hurry, and you look very upset. I wanted to make sure that you were okay or if there is anything I can do because I don't hate you. I was not lying when I told my mom that I believe that we will be really good friends." He tells her calmly.

Olivia is stunned. "How can you not hate me? I killed your grandfather just because my mom told me to and I enjoyed it. Your mom had to run for her life, and I was pissed that I couldn't find her so I could kill her too. I would tear my head off quite literally if I were you."

"Well as fun and gruesome as that all sounds, again, I do not hate you. I won't lie, I'm surprised to find out that you were the reason that he died so long ago, but I did not know him so I can't say that I feel a great loss with the new information. I mean no disrespect to him, but I did not know him. As for my mom, he got away and she is alive and healthy. That is all that matter now. Obviously, you don't want to still kill her so there's no harm from where I can see. I do want to talk and get to know each other. I may not want details, but a few stories would be nice, so there's no more big surprises, plus I'm sure that Rachel and Trace would love them."

"I suppose I can do that. I do owe you."

"How about I call up everyone and cancel the big cookout for now, and instead you come over and just hang out with a small group and you can share some stories and show off these cool abilities that you apparently have and neglected to tell us about." Justin teases and Olivia cannot control the smile that spreads across her face.

"That'd be nice. I'll bring Alyssa along, if you don't mind. I'm sure she'd like to hear some stories." Olivia says and Justin has no rejections to it. "Also, I think I owe you one more thing."

"You don't owe me anything at all," he insists.

"Just one thing. How about I help you get full and complete control over your powers? That way there's no more worrying about consequences when wanting to hold a girl's hand or kissing a beloved's lips." She offers him. "I can also teach you how to use them in fights. Non-fatal ways against humans to defend yourself and your loved ones, and more powerful ways if you ever need to use them against the 'special' ones, including me. Ya know, if you ever were to need to." She wants him to be able to not fear his powers, but own them. 

Olivia fears herself most of the time. She fears that she will lose the battle, that her genes, what she was born into, will take over. She cannot bear to think that she will be too weak to stay good, so she wants to make sure that Justin is ready to fight her if it becomes necessary. He needs to be able to fight her powers and be willing to do whatever it takes to keep everyone safe. Most importantly, she knows that one day her pursuers will find her, and she wants to know that everyone will be safe against them. They will come after them to get to her. Justin needs to know how to keep this from happening.

Justin's face lit up at the thought of being able to control his abilities and be able to be as normal as he can get. "That would be great. I just have to make one request. We don't involve the others, at least not for now. I'd like to know everything is all under control before they talk you into letting them train and all." He knows his friends well enough to know that they will do anything to be there to watch and jump in and learn whatever looks cool to them. 

"I promise I won't involve them without your permission unless I believe it is in their best interest." Olivia gives her word with a solid nod as if he could see it through the phone and Justin hears the definite tone in her voice and happily accepts this.

"Would you mind coming over tonight so we can talk? I'd like to talk to you a little about what happened with my mom and I'd liked to get an idea on what you have in mind for training."

Olivia agrees and makes plans to be over after dinner. She wants to talk to Alyssa and hear what she thinks about all of this and tell her that she'd like her to go over there sometime and get to know Justin and his friends. Of course, Alyssa is excited at the thought of Olivia getting out and being around people, and also learning to use her abilities that she seems to hate so much to help someone else. This could be interesting, so Olivia has no problem in convincing Alyssa to come along sometime. 

***

"I want you three gone tonight." Justin declares pointedly more towards Trace and Rachel than at Cara. "I'm not kidding either."

"Oh, hot date?" Rachel wiggles her eyebrows with a big smirk across her face. "Need the place all to yourself? Plan on taking advantage of the large space and great acoustics this place has?" The teasing made Trace almost fall over laughing.

"Thats so crude, Rachel." Cara rolls her eyes but Justin does see a hint of a smile on her face.

"The reason is none of your business. This is my house and if I want to be alone then thats how I get it."

"Yeah but i do live in the guest house which is, technically, just an extension to this one so I think I should get to stay in here." Rachel rationalizes with a smug smile.

"I also believe that I can kick you out of both houses if I truly want to." Justin says.

"No fun at all tonight. This must be a really hot date. Good to see you getting out and getting some." 

Justin denies the allegations of a date but the others refuse to believe it. Justin rushes them through dinner, hoping to get them out before Olivia shows up so he can avoid any looks and/or smartass comments. He did not want them to know the details of their plans just yet, so he wanted to get them out of the house. His luck being what it is, just as the three friends start to walk out the backdoor, the doorbells sounds throughout the house.

The three come to a halt and turn to look at Justin with eager faces. They are curious who could be at the door that would make their friend so anxious to get rid of them. The bell rings again, and Justin looks back and forth between the door and his friends.

"Well, aren't you going to go answer that? Wouldn't want whoever is here to leave, would you now?" Trace smirks.

The bell rings for the third time and Justin sighs in defeat as he turns to go to the door. The three amigos made their way into the doorway between the kitchen and living room areas. They watch as the door is slowly opened and the person's back was to them. She had turned to leave after Justin waited so long to answer the door.

Justin calls out to whoever and when she turns the three gasp. Rachel and Trace look at each other with the glee of a high school girl and Cara just stares in shock. Olivia is becoming part of the group quickly, and it makes her uneasy. She finds it extremely difficult to trust her and she can't shake the feeling that something is wrong. 

Justin ushers Olivia into the living room where she sees that she is bring watched closely and becomes uncomfortable. She has to use a little extra resistance to keep herself from reading their thoughts, so she knows everything they are thinking. It isn't fair for them, and she has to continue to remind herself of this. 

"Guys! Please quit staring. Olivia is here so we can talk about some things, so there is no need for you all to be here. You know I'll tell you eventually. Now, go away!" He demands and receives the huffs, groans, and eye rolls from all three as they all turn and leave the house through the backdoor.

"You didn't have to make them leave." Olivia says. She does not want to come in-between this close group of friends. She already feels the strain that she has caused already.

"I did or they would have been on my last nerve by the end of the night, and before you could stop me I'm pretty sure I would have electrocuted them all." He tells her but his small smile lets her know that he is mostly kidding.

"What did you want to tell me about your mother, other than the part that she hates me and wishes a horrible, painful, and torturous death upon me, of course?"

"I want to start out by apologizing for my mother." He starts. Olivia shakes her head and tells him that there is no need for an apology, but he insists. "She was hurt, but she still could have given you a chance to explain or something. I want you to feel like you can talk to me about whoever or whatever you used to be. It may be hard for me to hear, but I want you to be able to talk to me no matter what. I know what its like to not have someone who truly understands having special abilities and powers and impulses that could cause a lot of problems." He looks her in the eyes as he speaks to make sure that she is listening and understanding that he is being sincere. 

"After you left, my mom tried to convince me to never see you again and to do what I could to keep you away from the others, but I won't do that. I do believe that you want to be good. My mom believes that its in your genes to be evil and that you can't run from that, and in the end that is who you are. I, on the other hand, believe that your environment has a huge role in who you are and who you become. You were in an environment that not only encouraged but pushed for violence against others. Your family, who is important no matter who you are, is what pushed this on you. You did what you did for them. I don't know what made you change, and perhaps in due time you'll share with me, but whatever it is, forced you out of this environment and pushed you into a new one." Justin grabs her hand in his and holds onto it. "You are here now, and believe me when I tell you that I will do anything I can to help you and to make sure that your genes do not control you."

Olivia is able to take a deep breath and calm herself. Justin wants to continue being her friend and even wants to be come closer friends. She is relieved on so many levels. So much in fact, she catches herself letting go of his hand and throwing her arms around him in a hug. She soon realizes what she is doing and pulls away to apologize. Of course, Justin waves it off and give her another hug to show her that all is well.

"So what do you think you can teach me?" Justin asks curiously and excitingly. This is the first time in a very long time if ever that he is excited to explore his powers.

"Well, I can teach you a lot of things, but first thing is first. You need to know one important thing. You cannot hurt me. This is important because you are going to want to hold back on some of the exercising and I can't let you do that or it will only hurt you in the long run, or even in the short run on some of them." She attempts a joke and her smiel increases when she sees that Justin enjoyed it. "You need to know what triggers your powers and how to use that to control them. With electricity, I'm going to guess fear and anger. I'll teach you how to use it whenever you want for whatever you want, and you will even be able to control the power behind it." She tells him and he sits there in front of her, very still, trying to comprehend this information. "This means that you can use it to send just enough voltage through someone to cause a tingling sensation all the way up to a single spark will fry someone."

Justin cringes on the last statement. He doesn't want to know how to 'fry someone' but it would be nice for him to know how to keep it form getting there on accident. He just hopes that Olivia will be able to really teach him control. 

"You obviously have some control because you are able to show me without setting anything on fire. I assume you've done this before." Olivia asks and laughs a little when Justin head nods his head in shame. "You may not like some of the methods I have but you have to trust me completely because you need to be able to react in any situation without overreacting. 

"Um...ok, I trust you. You just have to be patient with me."

Olivia understands and gives no argument. Justin is a good guy. He's got a gentle heart and that will make it difficult for him to do some of the things she's going to ask him to do, but he will need to know that he may have to deal with it in the future. 

"Well you want to get your first lesson in now?" Olivia asks and Justin jumps up. This is the first time she's seen him so excited about something. This could prove to be fun.

"How long are they going to be down there today? We are supposed to be leaving to go to dinner in like two hours and they are both are going to need to shower." Cara groans as she lays on the couch staring up at the ceiling. 

"You know he enjoys these sessions. They know we have plans, so I'm sure they'll be done soon." Alyssa answers. She had come over with Olivia earlier that morning. 

They had all enjoyed a nice swim and a small lunch. Soon after lunch, Olivia and Justin disappeared in the basement while the others went back outside. They enjoyed the sun, but came in when it was time to start getting ready to go to dinner and a movie tonight. They figure it will be a fun way to hang out. 

"They've been doing these 'training sessions' for over a month now. How could he need anymore?" Cara whines.

"Aw, someone jealous? Miss your Justin time." Trace teases her and gets a finger and an eye roll in return.

***

"We've been at this for a month and you won't let me do anything except shoot bolts at a rubber mat." Justin whines.

For a month, Olivia has mainly been working on making sure he's in great shape, testing his strength and stamina. Just for the past week or so, has he actually used his electric abilities. 

"Well boo-hoo. You have to understand that I'm trying to get you to know the feelings of you powers, increasing your voltage as you go, but if you want to test it on something other than a mat than try me. If you can hit me, then I'll start teaching you other stuff." She challenges him, but his face fell.

"I'm not going to hit you. I could cause serious damage." Not he is not so sure about wanting to do other things.

"So you don't think you can control the power behind it? So you admit you need to continue to shoot at a mat?" She questions him, pushing him to see that this method will work.

"I do believe I can control the power, but I don't think you are a good subject to test on, just in case. Let's try a dummy of some kind."

Olivia shrugs and moves to the stairs. "Hey, Trace, can you come down here? Just would like you to help out on something." She smirks as she turns to Justin as she waits.

"That's not funny. There's no way!" Justin starts to panic and a little pissed that she would even try to involve him.

Trace opens the door and looks down. "What do you need?"

Before Justin could tell him nothing and send him away, Olivia turns and smiles up at him. "We need you to help us on something. It won't take long."

"Well good," Trace walks down the stairs to join them," because you all need to get ready for dinner."

Justin looks up at the clock on the wall. "You have a point. We should go get ready." He hurried says and walks to the stairs.

"Oh, no you don't. We got Trace here already. There's no point in wasting his time. It'll only take a few minutes."

Justin knows he's defeated on this. He stands across the room and waits for Olivia to tell him the plan.

"Trace here will play your friend who is in trouble." Olivia laughs and does Trace. "You think you can handle playing the friend?" She asks and Trace looks as if he's thinking it over before he 'reluctantly' agrees to do so. "I'll play the big bad meanie that is going to use him to get to you. You must get me away from him and get him to safety before I can hurt or kill him." Justin's face reveals panic. "Don't worry I'l glamour him, so he'll be so calm and cool, he'll hardly remember much." She assures him, and Trace is confused at first about this since they still don't know about her abilities, but it is obvious that she followed through with her plan because Trace's smile shows how relaxed he is with all of this.

"I don't know if I can do this. I either hurt him or you. I can't handle that kind of risk." Justin confesses upset with himself.

"You have to believe in yourself before you can truly have control. Trust that you can do this and trust that I won't let anything happen to Trace if you do mess up."

Justin nods and stands up straight. He holds his hands up, closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. When he opens them he sees that Olivia has pulled  Trace in front of her and is holding onto him as a shield. Her face is one of great challenge and satisfaction. 

He moves his hands as he always has, as he has been practicing with the mat. The bolt is small but as soon as it leaves his hand, he realizes it is straight towards Trace's chest. His eyes widen in shock and horror, knowing he can't stop it. What happens next takes him completely off-guard. Olivia moves quickly, as a blur, and moves her hand in front of his friend. She doesn't even flinch, but instead she throws her hand back towards him and he feels a jolt go through him. 

Did she just throw it back at him? Why didn't it hurt him?

He tried again, and this time it flew toward Trace's shoulder. Justin watches again as Olivia stops it from actually hitting Trace and as before she moves her hand back at him and he feels a small jolt. The next three times, his aim was on point, hitting Olivia in the arm twice and in the knee once. Just has a feeling she could have stopped these as well but she chosen not to.

"You see? You can control it. You just needed a little motivation and practice. Next time, we'll do it without Trace as a shield and me as a moving target." Olivia smiles proudly at Justin. She lets Trace go and tells him to tell the others we will be getting ready and leaving soon. "Do you see why I had you shooting at a mat first?"

"Yeah, target practice." He answers.

"You wouldn't go out with a gun and just start shooting without target practice. Its the same for this."

Justin just nods, but doesn't seem to be listening, as if his thoughts were wandering somewhere else. "The electricity didn't hurt you. Why? Are you immune to everything? You shot it back at me too. Why didn't it hurt me?"

Olivia laughs at this train of thought. "I'm not immune to everything. Things do hurt me, but you weren't firing at full power because you were afraid something might happen. It would take an extreme amount to hurt me though. You are right there. I shot it back because I want you to know that you will be immune to your own powers. Electricity will not affect you as it will others. This is something you should know." 

"You could have just told me."

"Yeah but what fun is that?" She asks smirking. 

"So is this another one of your abilities?" He wonders curiously. "I mean my mom did say you are able to do more than I let on. Is this one of them?"

"Not technically but yes some abilities I can turn back on the users."

"What else can you do?" He asks.

"Well...I...how about this? Throughout our training, when I feel you have earned new information through training and practice, I'll let you in on a new ability of mine. I'll tell you what it is and explain to you how I use it."

"Sounds good to me. How many do you have? How did you get them because mom said you inherited your main three, whatever that means." He is full of questions.

Olivia clinches her teeth for a few seconds. She may kill Lynn after all if this keeps happening. "I'll tell you how I got them too, but you have to earn it. How about we call it quits down here and get ourselves ready for dinner and a movie?" She practically runs up the stairs to get away from Justin and the conversation that was starting. 

These training sessions may prove to be a big mistake on Olivia's part. If only she had been able to obtain the ability to see the future, she would probably see just how crazy her life will get.

***

Dinner and movie was great for everyone. It was nice to just get out and enjoy the company. Everyone goofed off and laughed through the whole evening. Now they were back at the house and still enjoying each other's company. 

"So tell us what it was like to be held hostage by a woman." Rachel laughs hard. She may have had some alcohol through the night.

Justin groans and Olivia laughs along with Rachel. "I don't think we need to talk about this." Justin says.

"It was awesome! Olivia had to threaten to kill me while Justin had to figure out how to save me. I'm pretty sure that he almost killed me a couple of times but saved me in the end." He laughs at Justin's face, complete embarrassment and shame. "It was the coolest thing ever!" He exclaims.

"Can I be the next victim?" Rachel jumps in. "I'll even put up a fight if I need to." 

"There will be no more victims!" Justin declares.

"I don't know. I can think of ways to use them as victims. It could help with your training, as you saw today." Olivia adds. She could feel Rachel's excitement so she thought she would help out a little. 

Alyssa rolls her eyes at them all. "Just let the girl be a victim. We all know you won't do anything to hurt her, and there's always Olivia there to counteract all of your moves." She pauses a minute and looks at Justin. "So what do you do to try to fool her? Its gotta be tough when she knows your every move before you make it."

Justin looks over at Olivia and both of their eyes widen a little and Olivia looks over at Alyssa. The others look over at Alyssa with pure curiosity. 

"What do you mean that she knows his every move?" Trace asks and then looks over at Justin and Olivia. "Did you two preplan that whole situation? That's cheating but still pretty cool." 

"I was talking about her reading his mind." Alyssa says and looks over at Olivia and the look on her face shows her that the others weren't aware of this ability. "And now that I seem to have shared a secret that wasn't mine to share, I think I'm going to go home before one of those two kill me in some horrific manner." Alyssa stands up and moves to the door. "I'm so sorry!" 

"No, Alyssa, stay." Justin yells out to her and stands up himself as he looks over at his friends who are waiting for an answer.

Rachel studies Olivia for a second. "I thought you said your abilities were speed, strength, and agility. Are there more? I knew it! I was so disappointed to hear that you didn't have any cool powers, and you do! What can you do? Can you really throw fire balls?" Rachel is so excited with the new information that she could pee her pants. She is jumping all over the couch waiting to hear.

"Rachel, calm down. She didn't tell you for a reason." Justin tells her.

"Right," she stops moving, "sorry, I guess you can tell us whenever you want."

"I want to know," Cara speaks up which surprises everyone. "What?! I'm curious just like the rest of you."

They all turn back to Olivia in hopes that she will share. Of course, she in turn looks over at Justin to see if he's comfortable with this. They didn't know because of him in all honesty, so she wants him to be okay with this. He nods to let her know. They clearly don't mind that she has some kind of special abilities and they know that she wasn't always good and they are okay with that. He isn't sure why he keeps holding out on them. Fear that the truth will hurt them eventually.

"I can read and manipulate the way you feel and also read your thoughts." Olivia answers simply.

"Really?! What am I thinking right now?" Trace jumps forward on his seat as if getting closer will help her read his mind.

"Well if you think about one thing at once, I'd have to say that you are thinking about how awesome I am and how cool it would be to be able to read girl's minds because it would be great in bed. i guess that is why I'm feeling the horniness coming from you." She rolls her eyes. 

"You are such a perv, Trace." Cara scoffs. 

"What me to read you?" Olivia asks but Cara immediately denies her. "Rachel?" Of course Rachel is excited about it. "Well, you are excited and I think I'm picking up a tinge of fear. I believe you are afraid of what you are thinking about. You're excited that I am hear because you think Justin could use someone to talk to and...."Olivia's eyes widen which causes Rachel to laugh.

"To what?" Justin questions but isn't sure he wants to know the answer.

"She thinks you need someone to sleep with, to relieve some tension and maybe you'll be in a better mood more often. She thinks I'm a good candidate because you can't hurt me."

Rachel smirks and Trace laughs along with Olivia and Alyssa at the look of shock and humiliation on Justin's face.

"That's completely uncalled for and none of your business whatsoever, Rachel." Justin glares at her and then turns to Olivia. "I'm so sorry about that. She apparently doesn't know when to grow up." 

"There's no reason to apologize. I find it quite humorous and fun. Your friends care about you, and its nice to be around people who are just so open about all of this."

"I have a question." Cara steps up and crosses her arms. "How often do you 'read' us? I mean, its really not that cool that we don't have any privacy around you. With you in our heads all the time, don't you think its a little unfair for us? Have you ever manipulated us before?"

"Cara!!" Rachel exclaims in disbelief. "She wouldn't do that."

Olivia is quiet. She knows that Cara's question is an honest and fair question. "I have." She speaks out and everyone's head whips around to look at her. "It's not what you think. I don't just make you feel however you want. Your thoughts and feelings are what make you who you are, and I don't want to change that. I used it on Trace and Rachel when you all were attacked by those men. I wanted to keep you calm so you wouldn't go into shock and also so Justin could think straight. I'm sorry but I figured it was the best thing to do at the time." Rachel and Trace nod their head in understanding and thanks. 

"I used it on Trace when we were holding him as a hostage for us. I read Justin's thoughts when we first met. It was a necessity at the time. I have people looking for me and I needed to know if he was one of them. I read them as I followed you at first, so I would know if you wanted to talk to me. I didn't want to invade your space if you really wanted me gone." Olivia confesses and finds it hard to look at anyone in the face. 

"Thank you." Rachel tells her and reaches out to squeeze her hand and then pulls her into a hug. This is definitely not the response Olivia was expecting. "We would not have made it through that night if it hadn't been for you. Thank you."

Trace agrees and grabs her and pulls her into a quick hug also. "You're our hero." He tells her. He then puts his hand to his forehead as he feigns a fainting spell making the others laugh and the mood to lighten again.

"So how does it work? Does the person's mood or whatever go back to normal if you walk away or what?" Cara asks. Her eyes still looking on in suspicion.

"Well, that depends. I can make it to where the affects stay with the person and just wears off in time, usually when the person is able to overcome it with their own strong emotions, or it stays only as long as I'm there to make it stay, usually as a temporary thing so something can be done."

"Like killing them?"

"Cara!!" This time it is Justin who exclaims in shock. 

"No, its okay. It was that at times, but not always. If that were the case, it was usually a last resort effort."

"I bet you were freakin' awesome in battle, knowing your opponents every move before they made it. Thats so cool. Dodging every move only to counteract it with a great strike of your own." Trace is standing up and throwing his fist at an invisible opponent, ducking to dodge a punch to throw one of his own.

Justin rolls his eyes at this best friend. The man can be so incorrigible at times. He gets excited about the most ridiculous things.

"Can you teach me how to fight? That would be so hot," says Trace with a big smile and what looks to be a twinkly in his eye.

"Absolutely not!!"

"Of course." 

Justin and Olivia both answer at the same time. Justin is not happy with her answer. 

"Oh come on," Olivia says, "the boy should be able to know how to fight. I promise I'll go easy on him." She teases.

"Hey! If he gets to learn, I get to, too." Rachel demands.

"Fine by me. How about this? Every Sunday night, whoever wants to learn how to fight, can be downstairs and I'll show you some cool fighting moves." The two are excited about the plans while Justin scoffs at the idea. 

Alyssa sits in amusement at the group. They have truly grown to really like Olivia and are extremely comfortable with who she and Justin are. Cara worries here though for she just sits there quietly and  watches. She may not be able to read her mind like Olivia can, but her mood is clearly written on her face. She does not like Olivia at all. She's jealous of her. This could turn into something interesting and Alyssa hopes she is around to see it. 

Alyssa turns to Justin and sees that he may not be happy with his friends' involvement in all of their training, but he does seem comfortable with Olivia and trust her with his friends' lives. This man will be good for Olivia. He could help her find her humanity and keep it. He could very well be what Blake's death has led her to, who she is meant to be with.

It is sunny and warm outside with a nice cool breeze blowing. This is why Olivia has agreed to have lunch with Justin. They chose a nice small cafe-style restaurant that is nearby his work, so they could enjoy the weather while they walk to lunch and sit outside and eat.  

"Its such a beautiful day." Olivia says as she looks around and sees several people walking around and enjoying the sun as they were.

"Yes, it is" Justin agrees. "I need to get back to work for a stupid meeting, but are we still on for some training tonight?" He asks and gets a nod from Olivia. "I was thinking maybe I could aim to get a new power out of you." He smirks.

"Aw, I see. You want to start firing at me again in hopes that you will catch me off-guard." She chuckles a little at the thought. "You can try, but I doubt that you will be able to."

"Well I've been trying to get a new one out of you for over a month now, and I'm sure I'll get one tonight." He is very confident and Olivia loves this. It makes it more fun for her and makes her almost want to give it to him.

"Well, I'll let you get back to work and that fun-filled meeting you got. I'll meet you at your house around...seven?"

"Sounds good. Bring Alyssa along. She can hang with the moochers that I can't get rid of." He laughs at the thought which makes Olivia laugh along with him.

They both walk back to Justin's workplace and from there Olivia chooses to walk home so she can enjoy the weather some more. The walk, for a normal person, would be extremely difficult even for a well-trained athlete, but lucky for her she is not a normal person and she could walk or run for days without feeling the effects.

***

That night Alyssa drives herself an Olivia to Justin's for a fun night. 

"Why do we always come here instead of him coming to hangout at our apartment?" Alyssa questions.

"His house is bigger, so everyone is more comfortable plus the basement is a great place for training away from everyone so Justin feels better and your apartment isn't messed up." Olivia answers as they make their way to the door.

"I meant why does Justin not come over, not everyone else. Why does he not come see you at our apartment?" She smiles when Olivia stops walking.

She turns to Alyssa with a confused look. "I'm not sure why he would do that unless we are training and like I just said, your apartment is not appropriate for that."

Alyssa just shakes her and sighs at her sister's answer. She can be so dense.

Olivia knocks on the door as she enters to announce their arrival. Justin insisted that she not wait for someone to answer the door since she is over so often. The group is once again gathered in the living room watching television. As soon as the new arrivals appear, Rachel jumps up.

"We're going to go night swimming because its more fun with the pool lights on, and then there's the hot tub thats always fun...well unless I'm required to share it with my cousin and then its just weird." Rachel adds as she grabs Alyssa's hand. "I have some hotties coming over to join us." She wiggles her eyebrows.

Alyssa smiles but then follows it with a frown. "I can't join you. I didn't bring a bathing suit with me."

"No excuse. I have many suits and you are just about my size. These boys will be worth it. Promise."

"You better behave, and I will be meeting these 'hotties' that are coming over to my house to be in my pool and hot tub and there will be absolutely no getting it on in either places." He looks at her pointedly.

"Yes, father." She rolls her eyes and continues to pull Alyssa at the door with Trace following, already in his trunks and a t-shirt that he will soon remove.

Cara stands up and looks at Justin and Olivia and lowers her head a bit as she slowly follows the rest of the group out to the pool. 

"We not going to join them?" Olivia asks with what Justin believes to be a pout.

"I was hoping to get the power info out of you. You'd prefer to swim?"

"Wouldn't you prefer to be out there when those boys show up?" Olivia ropes him in. 

"You know what? You're right. We could use some fun, and a little time in the hot tub would loosen up my muscles from previous lessons." Justin says. "I'm going to go put my trunks on. Why don't you go join Rachel and Alyssa in the guest house. I'm most certain she has a suit for you too."

Olivia does just that. Rachel squeals in excitement when she's asked for another suit.

***

The night is going well. Everyone is having fun and drinking it up. Justin started out in the pool but soon moved to join Olivia in the hot tub where she is sitting and relaxing as she watches the others make a fool out of themselves.

"Not much of a drinker?" Justin asks while being amused by his friends.

"Nope. I prefer to stay in my right mind, plus it takes a lot more alcohol than you have here to get me drunk. Demon blood is apparently runs a lot thicker than human blood, therefore harder to intoxicate." She informs him. "I'm sure you've got a much higher tolerance than they do, seeing as you are not all that drunk yourself, Mr. Timberlake." 

"You do have a point. I am actually choosing not too. I'm getting a bad vibe off these guy that Rachel invited over. I want to stay in my 'right mind' in case I need to step in." Justin keeps his eyes on the girls in the pool. Each with a boy they do not know and all three are heavily intoxicated. "Any chance you could read their thoughts for me?" 

"I don't believe that's very fair of you to ask. You don't want me intruding on your thoughts, but you wish me to on someone else's? Besides that could be seen as exploited my abilities, and I don't think I appreciate that." She tells him.

"You're right. I'm sorry." 

Olivia cannot keep her smile hidden any longer as she laughs at her friend. "Justin, I'm only kidding. I've been in and out of their minds all night. Of course they are all horny, but they are also all of the male species. If you want me to be honest, I believe Trace's thoughts are far more worse than some of the others." Justin chuckles at this, not doubting the truth behind it. "As for intentions, I'm making sure that they don't go too far with them. I can't stop them if the woman wants it because that really is intruding, but if there's any sign of doubt in the woman's mind, I'll be sure to intervene or send you in to do so."

"I think we should stop them no matter what." Justin mumbles, unhappy with her answer of letting them.

"That's not cool. If it were you, would you want them to stop you from getting some just because they aren't happy with your choice?" Olivia points out to get him to understand.

The night goes on for another hour, when Justin finally decides to call it quits. He has to get up in the morning and would like at least a couple of hours of sleep. As he says his goodnights, the guys all start to make their moves, trying to get into the woman's bed or have them come back to their place for more. Trace is passed out on one of the lounge chairs, where Justin brings out a blanket and covers him with it and places a pillow under his head. 

Olivia stays beside the hot tub. She has gotten out and put her clothes on over her suit, but remains still, waiting for any sign of needing rescue. Rachel has to say no a couple times but her guy eventually gets the hint and starts to head out. Olivia doesn't see Cara at first and starts to worry until she spots her heading out the door with her man. She is more than happy to go, so Olivia doesn't stop her. Alyssa, on the other hand, is another concern. With her being the half-sister, Olivia is a little extra protective but promises to stay true to her word about letting her go if she wants. 

Olivia stays out of her sister's thoughts at first, just watching the interaction. She sees the guy pulling her close and Alyssa trying to gently push him away. A few more tries with Alyssa pushing harder each time riles the guy up. Olivia can clearly see that she needs to step in. Justin hadn't quite made it inside when he heard Alyssa arguing, too. He turns to join in, seeing that Olivia is approaching from the opposite side.

"Hey, buddy, I think its time you called it a night. The girl said no." Justin tries to reason with him, in order to prevent a fight.

"I don't think this is any of your business, pal." They guy practically yells in his drunken state.

"Seriously, its time you left. Your friend is waiting for you over there." Olivia points towards the gate. "We don't want any problems here, but you need to leave."

"I didn't realize I was dealing with a little girl and her parents. I prefer a real woman anyway." He slurs as he stumbles, nearly falling several times, on his way out. His friend apologizes as he practically shoves him into the car and drives off.

"You okay?" Olivia questions Alyssa.

"I'm fine." Her answer is curt. 

"Are you sure? You seem to be in a mood. You should let that guy get to you. He's not worth it." Olivia adds as she follows Alyssa over to where her clothes are sitting on a chair.

"I'm quite aware of that. Thanks anyway."

"What's your deal? We just helped you get rid of some dude that wanted to take you back to his place, hope you are too drunk to fight, and then use you to throw you away in the morning." Olivia tells her, getting annoyed herself.

"Well, lucky me for having a bodyguard, or I guess a mom and dad around to save me." She spits out angrily.

"Is that what this is about? Some jackass called you a 'little girl' and you choose to take it out on me?" Olivia cannot believe this.

"I am twenty-eight years old. I am more than capable of taking care of myself. I can make my own decisions and I don't need you around to scare off some drunk guy for me. I was more than able to take care of him myself. I haven't needed you to take care of me before now, and I don't need you to do it now." Alyssa yells, gaining everyone's attention and even waking up Trace.

The group feels uncomfortable watching the interaction between the two half-sisters, but it's like a train wreck. They couldn't make themselves look away. They've never seen Alyssa get so riled up, and Olivia trying her hardest to stay calm in all of this, slightly surprised she hasn't done something to calm Alyssa down, but they do know that she prefers everyone feel their own feelings instead of hers.

Alyssa turns to walk away, but Olivia reaching out to stop her so they could finish this. "Alyssa, I'm sorry."

"I don't want your stupid apology. I just want to be left alone." Alyssa brushes her off and turns back around.

Olivia reaches out again, "Alyssa, just lis--" her words are cut short when Alyssa whirls around and shoves her away.

The shove is not what surprised everyone causing a gasp to be heard from all of them. The gasps are for the fact that Olivia doubled-over as she flew threw the air, across the remaining yard, and into the wooden privacy fence causing it to crumple around her.

"Oh my--" Alyssa eyes immediately widen in horror as she runs over to check on Olivia.

Everyone else soon follows, seeing no movement from the now wood pile. Justin reaches down to start moving pieces, when he sees the wood start to move on its own. It isn't long before Olivia is standing up, brushing herself off, and coughing some dust out of her lungs. Her clothes are torn a bit and she looks up to see everyone staring at her in shock and horror and then back at Alyssa. She reaches up and touches the corner of her mouth and when she pulls her hand away, blood is covering the tips of her fingers.

She makes her way out of the wood pile and towards her friends who are all moving very slowing as they continue to just stare. She leans over and spits blood out and then looks up at Alyssa with a smile. "I have to say," she reaches back up to touch her mouth, pulling back to show more blood, "its been a long time since someone's made me bleed and a lifetime or two since someone has been able to catch me off-guard like that."

"I'm so so sorry. I don't know what came over me. Oh my God, are you okay?" Alyssa stutters out in shock herself. "I have no idea how I did that." She tells them.

"Its all good. Almost fun." Olivia spits out more blood. "I haven't had a good fight in a long while. Granted that wasn't a fight but you definitely packed a lot of heat in that. Looks like you did get something from Daddy after all, well our father, sorry." Olivia corrects herself. They all look at her in silence, full of confusion. "Well I told you all that demon blood comes from the mother. That's why you have no 'special abilities,' Alyssa, and Justin does. I guess I didn't consider that daddy factors." Olivia states, not really clearing anything up for anyone.

"Justin, no matter which one of your parents are demon, one is and one isn't, which makes you half-demon no matter what. Same for Alyssa. The difference is that your mother is demon, so you get to have the powers unlike Alyssa's case in which the father is demon. But the father does play a factor. Justin's father was human which is probably why you are more gentle and kind and all unlike most demons, no offense to your mother of course." Olivia feels she must add the end statement, so there are not hard feeling stirred up. "Alyssa, you're father is demon which means that your demon connection will be extremely suppressed compared to ours. Your anger and frustration and annoyance brought out the extra strength. I can't see that you will have this all the time, but I'm sure I can work with you on accessing it if you would like." Alyssa is quiet, trying to take it all in. Olivia continues, "In rare cases, when dad is the demon, the powers are there, just not as prominent. As Alyssa has shown, her strength is normal until I provoked it, purely accidental but glad I did now. Our powers deal with the mind, so she's probably well in-tuned with people's feeling, but chalks it up to being very observant. In even more rare cases, the person has a unique ability of her own." Olivia's eyes lighten up at the final thought.

"What are you talking about? Can she fly or something?" Trace asks with a touch of slur.

"No, but I wonder and hope you can do this. Will you do me a favor and repeat after me?" Olivia asks Alyssa, holding onto he so she will look her in the eyes. When Alyssa silently nods, Olivia goes on to say, "this will be a easy and pointless one, but if it works, so much more will come of it." The group comes closer to the two and waits to see what is about to happen. "Ok, repeat this: Olivia is family, and they are not.....not wait, um, strength from anger, heat from fire....oh no, that wouldn't be good for you to try. I need to think of one that will be easy and will work." Olivia's ramblings were confusing the group more and more but at the same time have them biting at the bits with curiosity. She thinks for a minute as she quietly whispers to herself crazy nonsense. 

"I got it! Something stupid and crazy but it just might work. Repeat this: Olivia is a full demon, and Justin is part. They both have powers but I have none, so I want you to give me a pretty red go-cart." Alyssa rolls her eyes at the whole thing. "I know it sounds stupid but its the best I can do for now. It may not even work."

Alyssa rolls her eyes and repeats what she says, and nothing happens. "What was that supposed to prove?" 

"Alyssa, listen to me. I need you to trust me and repeat it again, but believe it will work. If it doesn't work I will buy you the pretty red go-cart that you speak of." She tries to give her the motivation she needs.

Alyssa nods and repeats it with a little more enthusiasm this time. Mere seconds after she finishes, a shiny red go-cart appears poolside. Everyone yells in excitement at the new revelation.

"What does this mean?" Rachel asks the question that everyone is thinking.

"That my dearest half-sister here received just the right mixture of blood from both parent that she is what you would call a witch."

Standing up quickly from where she was admiring the go-cart, Alyssa speaks up, "I've been through puberty, I lived through zits, Lets forget Jolie and give me Brad Pitt." She and Rachel look around with so much excitement that a person would think they were going to explode.

Olivia rolls her eyes and crosses her arms. "Not quite."

"Well why not? I rhymed and I meant it. Why can't I have it?" Alyssa questions, 

"It doesn't work that way. Thats why I called the first one an easy one. If you try it again, though, you'll see it won't work. Hate to tell you but only your first spell works that way."

"And you wasted it on a go-cart when I could have had Brad Pitt!" Alyssa scoffs.

"If you want to excel with this, you will need to practice. I can help you with your strength training, but I'm limited when it comes to magic. I know some places get the books, materials, ingredients, and all that if you would like me to take you. Most of what I know is what I've heard or seen through others."

"Man, this keeps getting better and better," Rachel smiles, "first its Justin. Then he just happens to run into Olivia who just happens to be demon, who has a half-sister who happens to be able to throw people through fences with a simple push and turns out to be a witch. What's next? Will I have a power? I mean I am related to Justin."

"Rachel, you're just getting ridiculous now. Besides, you're related to me on my dad's side of the family." Justin says. "I'm going to bed, I need to get some sleep and this is all giving me a headache."

Justin gets in the house before Olivia runs after him. "I'm so sorry. I seem to have complicated your life even more. You just wanted a normal life and now I just added more complications." Olivia apologizes.

Justin reaches out and grabs onto her hands. "You have not complicated anything. My life is not normal nor will it ever be. I've realized that, but you have made it easier for me. My friends are great and very understanding. I couldn't have asked for more in them. With you, though, I have a little more. I have someone I can talk to who truly understands what these powers and abilities feel like and everything. You can help me with them and my friends seem to have grown attached to you." He turns to look out the window and sees them all gathered around Alyssa and talked nonstop, about her newfound powers no doubt. "I have grown quite attached to you myself." Olivis quickly revert back to Justin. "You've become such a good friend and I really do like having you around." He says movign closer to her as if to hug her, but stops short.

"I like being around. You all have done nothing but make me feel welcomed here. I had many followers and many who wished to be apart of our elite. I had so many people around, but none of them truly cared. They only wished for the power that came along with us. The only one that truly cared about me, besides Blake," Olivia's head drops but Justin places his fingers under her chin to lift it back up, "the only one in our family that cared was my brother. In the end, he even betrayed me." She closes her eyes, willing the tears away, but one escapes.

Justin wipes it away and pulls her into a hug. "We will never do that. We love having you around, and I am sure Rachel and Trace will beg you to teach them all kinds of things they don't need to know." He jokes with her.

"I feel that Cara will not enjoy me around so much."

"She just has a hard time trusting new people. She'll come around. I promise."

"I think you've earned yourself a little insight on a power of mine." Olivia tells him and sees his face light up. "I'll reveal to you tomorrow. As for now, you need to go to bed, you do have work tomorrow. I'm thinking those three out there will be using a sick day." She laughs as Justin agrees.

An unexpected discovery of abilities in Alyssa may prove to be most helpful in the future. Hopefully, Olivia will be able to get her what she needs, and even more so hopefully Alyssa is a fast learner.

Olivia is not surprised a bit to wake up to the sound of Alyssa groaning loudly from the bathroom floor. She had driven them home last night after her talk with Justin, and it wasn't long before Alyssa had passed out in her bed, with a trash can beside her just in case. Olivia rolls out of bed and makes her way to the bathroom and leans against the doorframe to look over the poor helpless soul sprawled out on the floor.  

She chuckles at the sight, "you going to make it?"

Alyssa groans again and grabs her head. "Please don't yell. Just whisper." She responds in a whisper of her own. "Can't you use your powers or whatever to make me feel better?"

Olivia rolls her eyes at the question and laughs. "My powers affect your mood, not your physical state. Your hangover is physically your fault and your consequences. I can make you happy about it though." She teases through her own amusement.

"Ha...ha. You are just so funny. Will you please just get me some aspirin or something and some water?" 

"of course I can." She goes to the kitchen to look through the drawer where Alyssa through all of her drugs. Searching through all the bottles, Olivia yells out, "So, i was thinking, since you already obviously have the day off, if you start to feel better I could take you to make get some books to read up on and made take you by a store and pick up some supplies so you can practice some of the smaller things." She finds the bottle and goes back to the bathroom. 

Alyssa has pulled herself up into a sitting position, leaning against the tub. "Really? That would be great. If I can keep these pills down, I shouldn't be too bad in a couple of hours."

Olivia wishes her good luck and goes back to her room changes into some cargo pants and a simple tank.Throwing her hair up into a ponytail, she announces that she is heading out for a few minutes and she'll be back to check up on the sick. Alyssa waves her away and does everything she can to get rid of her hangover. 

Olivia did call Justin to check on how the other three. Rachel and Trace seem to be in the same boat as Alyssa, and no one has heard from Cara yet. She only hopes the saying is true and that maybe Cara will be in a better mood today after going home with one of the guys from last night. She makes plans with Justin for that night, and makes her way back to the apartment to check on Alyssa.

To Olivia's surprise, Alyssa is up and moving around and dressed to go out. "I assume you were able to keep the meds down?"

"Yep. My head feels much better. My stomach is still uneasy, but thats from both the alcohol and not eating. I'm a little afraid to eat. My stomach may not agree with the whole eating thing, so I'm taking it slow and easy today." She explains. "So you still going to take me out?"

"I said I would, didn't I?" Olivia nods as she turns back to the door and heads back out with Alyssa following her this time. "I did check out a few stores that I thought you might be interested in. They aren't to far from here. You up for a walk or you to 'uneasy' to?"

Alyssa agrees to try out the walking. She's slow moving, but the cool breeze helps her out a bit. The first store is only a couple of blocks from the apartment and is a very small, family-owned bookstore. Alyssa starts to question it because she's been in this particular store before and saw nothing that she's interested in.

"It's because you weren't looking for the right thing. I came in here earlier, and the owners were very kind, very helpful." Olivia assures her as she walks in. She does leave out the part that she had to convince the owners that she is good, apparently her aura did not read as such.

Olivia leads them both to a back corner where there were three books lying out on a table. the three books that she had previously been looking over, and they had kept out for her.

"These are the three that I think you will get the most out of right now. There are some simple spells and incantations and everything and also information on didn't items, ingredients and such. I figured you could start with these to help you learn your craft and then we can come back later or go somewhere else and look for more advanced spells when you've got this stuff mastered." Olivia tells her as she starts to thumb through the first one. "Why don't you look over some of the things and if you see anything you might want to try, we can go to the supply store next. Apparently this family owns it, too."

"I'd love to, thanks." Alyssa replies, sitting down to get comfortable as she looks over the books.

Olivia chooses to look around some more to see if there was anything that interested her personally. She considers it a failure after walking around the entire store, but the owner lady calls her over to where she stands in a back room. Cautiously she approaches, curious as to what she may want. Her thoughts come in as a jumble mess, so it is unclear to her, which is unusual for her also.

"I've put up a protector in here. You cannot enter my mind." The lady informs her as if reading Olivia's mind. "I must confess. I do not trust you. You read very dark and very unstable. I am shocked to see that your friend in there shares an aura with you, partly, but her light overcomes her dark. She, I do not worry about." Olivia is not shocked to hear this information. She is used to these types of comments towards her. "I would not allow you in here, but my husband has convinced me that you are of greater purpose and you are meant to come in here. You are meant to find something that will help you find your way."

"Ma'am, I have no idea what you are talking about. I'm not lost and I'm well aware of who I am. I have no new powers or abilities to discover, so I'm quite sure there's really nothing you can help me with." Olivia gives he an apologetic look as she turns to go back to Alyssa.

"So you do not wish to know your outcome of the battle between you and a very close one?"

Olivia quickly turns back around with a suspicious stare. "What battle and what close one?"

"A big battle will occur between you and someone you care very much about. One that will end in many tears and sorrow." The lady starts to frustrate Olivia with her cryptic talk.

"Who will be this so-called 'close one?" Will I kill him?" Olivia questions wanting direct answers.

"The choice is up to you. You will have to choose." The lady declares and then disappears into a doorway.

Olivia wishes to follow, but she hears Alyssa calling for her. She goes back out to the shop area and find Alyssa with all three books in her arms, looking around for her. 

"Over here, you ready?"

"Yeah, are you alright? You seem a bit distracted? Find something you want in here?" Alyssa looks Olivia over and tries to see what may be off.

Olivia shakes her head to not only answer Alyssa's question but to clear her head of the lady's words. You will have to choose. Choose between what? Will she have to choose herself and another or choose between to people she cares about or just choose to let someone live or die. She cannot seem to shake the really bad feeling she has.

Alyssa seems to not notice Olivia's state of mind or just chooses to ignore it for now. She drags Olivia into the supply store and buys up a few things that she needs to try out a couple of spells that look easy and don't require someone's blood.

It's still early when they make it back home, so Olivia claims she needs a walk as Alyssa immediately starts on her first spell. Why could she not possibly obtain the ability to see the future? That would come in handy right about now. She walks around for a couple of hours to clear her head.

***

Its a little after five, and Justin has called to tell Olivia that he is on his way home and that she and Alyssa are more than welcome to come over whenever they wish. Its only minutes before Olivia is dragging Alyssa out the door.

Olivia is informed, upon arrival, that Justin is in the basement waiting and Alyssa (giddy as a schoolgirl) joins the others to tell them about her first spell.

Olivia opens the door to the basement and can hear Justin punching the bag. "Oh good, I need a bit of energy release today." She mumbles.

"Is that so? What do you have in mind?" Justin asks with a wicked smirk.

Olivia's facial expression shows that she wasn't aware that he would be able to hear her. "I'd enjoy shooting your bolts back at you." She smirks back at him as a challenge.

"That would be great, but how about that power you promised to tell me about?" Justin reminds her. "I'll throw bolts at you if you wish."

"Alright fine. Since you didn't earn it through your physical abilities, instead of a power, I'll show you an ability instead." Olivia tells him before stepping away from him, so he can see her completely. "This comes in handy when you want to blend in with those around you."

Olivia's shoulder-length straight brown hair quickly changes to short curly and blonde then just as quickly it becomes long and black. Justin eyes widen with amazement. She smiles as she blinks her eyes and opens them to reveal her bright blue eyes were now a bright purple. Her hair changes once again. This time it was a blue mohawk then a nice deep dark purple bob with pink streaks. Her eyes change again to a gold color. 

"How are you doing that?" Justin asks, reaching up to touch her hair but pulls back.

"You can touch it. Its real hair." Olivia chuckles. "I just think about the hairstyle I want or the eye color that interests me, and there you go. A new look within seconds. Much cheaper than what it cost for a stylist to do it and a lot easier than sitting around waiting for the dye to set or the cut to shape up while the whole time you are praying that the stylist doesn't screw it up." She shrugs.

"How did you acquire this ability? This seems like a handy one to have."

Olivia sucks in a deep breath and looks down at her feet. When she looks back up at Justin, her hair is back to normal as well as her eyes. "I don't think that matters," she replies but she can tell that Justin's curiosity won't be yielding. "Well, as you are aware of, I was not the greatest person. I lacked that caring moral fiber that most people are born with. I would kill anyone and anything for whatever reason, usually a selfish one." She grimaces at the thought but sees that Justin doesn't. He stands there, listening, and waiting patiently for the story to finish. 

"There was a little girl. She couldn't have been more then ten. I was in the woods, playing a game with my brother," Olivia's eyes glaze over as if she was reliving it again, "the little girl was just happily skipping through the woods, without a care in the world. I wouldn't have paid her much mind except she was singing some stupid happy jingle song and her hair was changing along with it. It was every color in the world, and I was hooked. I made my way over to her path, so she would come up to me. I greeted her and she had no problem talking to me. I was such a nice pretty girl. I made sure she remained calm around me. so her instincts to run from me did not surface. Eventually, I bored of our interaction and I killed her, took her ability, and then used it to win the game against my brother. I killed her just so I could win a game." She shakes her head as if to shake the memory away.

"Could you not have taken her ability without killing her?" Justin asks, not as a way of judgment, but just needing to know.

"The only way to acquire someone else's powers and abilities is through them willingly giving them up which never happens or to kill them and to say a spell soon after. As you should assume, all mine were taken by force."

Justin nods but instead of moving away from her, he moves towards her and pulls her into a hug. "How about this? If you ever want my powers, just ask. I'll give them to you." He tries to tease. He feels Olivia shake a little as she chuckles in his embrace.

"What do you say to you throwing bolts at me? I would very much like to toss them back at you, for pure amusement of course." She laughs and Justin can't stop himself from joining in.

With no warning from him, he charges up and lets the game begin.

"So have you learned anything today?" Trace asks.

Alyssa sits up with excitement. "Most of the spells require some special ingredients and stuff, but I learned fun facts that will be even more fun to test out. There's a spell that allows a person to be able to read minds. Granted, its for a limited time, but I'm interested in trying that one out. See what its like to be Olivia for a day." Alyssa smiles. 

"How hard does it look? Are the spells difficult?" The question is from Rachel this time.

"There are a few that look easy enough, plus Olivia promised to help me out on a few, until I get the hang of it. I saw a few that looked simple," replies Alyssa. "I saw a few shallow spells like changing my hair color or making small things appear and so on. I'm looking forward to learning how to do the bigs ones like reading thoughts, making a nice car appear, and even creating the perfect man."

"Don't you think you should try to keep the spells to a minimum. I'm sure they will have their repercussions. Also, I thought Justin told us that Olivia wouldn't read our minds and now you want to cast a spell so you can?" Cara speaks up.

"Its no big deal. Its all in good fun. I won't be able to do it for awhile I'm sure." Alyssa shrugs. About to add more, she is stopped by a loud crash in the basement. "Seems Olivia and Justin are at it again. I really wish we could be down there and wash those two go at it."

"I wish those two would just go at it for real." Rachel wiggles her eyebrows making the others laugh.

"Why don't we go down there? Its obviously loud enough that we can quietly sneak down and sit on the chairs to watch." Cara's suggestion shocks everyone and excites them at the same time.

The group rushes over to the door, but stops to make sure everyone is quiet so they can ease down the stairs. Alyssa makes sure the door is closed in silence and they all post themselves at the top of the stairs. At first it seems boring. Justin is throwing punches as Olivia quickly dodges them. It is amazing how fast the two could move, but no contact is being made. 

"This sucks!" Rachel exclaims in a whisper.

"How did this causes all that noise?" Trace rolls his eyes.

"I'm sure that helped." Alyssa points, directing everyone's attention to Justin just as he raises his arms and a flash lights up the room.

Olivia has no problem catching the ball of light and throws it back like a baseball. Justin ducks and a pile of boxes blows up. Justin tries again and this time, Olivia hits him on the throwback. The power behind it causes him to jolt a bit..

"That was so cool!" Trace exclaims, forgetting to be quiet.

Justin, being startled, whips around and finds himself throwing his arms towards the steps. Fear covers the faces of the four on the stairs and Justin who is watching as if in slow motion as he realizes what he has done. Just before the light hits the four, something causes it to change in path and hit the wall just beside the stairs.

Olivia falls to her knees in as if she had lost her strength. Justin fights his shock and rushes over to her. "Oh shit. Are you okay? What happened?"

"I'm fine. It took a bit of energy from me to push that much power away. I guess I'm not as strong at I thought, but then again you have been working me like a slave driver." She jokes with him. "You're getting really good with that power. Now we obviously need to work on your nerves, too easy to startle."

"No, please don't worry about us. The defenseless humans over here that almost got blown up by their friend." Trace is sarcastic, standing from the stairs, in a bit of shock.

"I'm so sorry!" Justin rushes over to them now. "You startled me, and it was pure reflex. We were in a zone." Justin apologizes and then stops and glares at the four. "Why are you down here in the first place? Now you know why I told you that you do not need to be down here." 

"We wanted to see what all the ruckus was about, literally." Cara tells him. "It was interesting to watch."

"Yeah! So you can catch his electricity and literally hurl it back at him? That's so cool!" Justin has to wonder if Rachel will ever not be amazed and/or excited about this stuff.

"You should see what else she can do." Justin's declaration catches Olivia by surprise. "She can definitely make you jealous, Rachel." 

"What can you do?!"

Olivia looks over at the four that are staring at her, waiting for whatever it is that she is about to do. She looks over at Justin, questioning him and he answers in a nod. She raises an eyebrow at him. She looks like she's waiting for Justin to admit its a setup. As soon as she portrays her recently demonstrated ability, he will be mad at her for dragging his friends into this world even more.

She waits a moment to see if Justin will choose to back out, but when he doesn't she turns back to the other four. She closes her eyes and when she reopens them, not only are they a bright purple again, but her hair is long and purple also. All four jaws drop to the ground and their owner continue to watch in pure amazement as her hair changes in length, color, and style. Her eyes change in color just as fast. After a few minutes of ridiculous hairstyles, Olivia goes back to her original hairstyle and eye color. 

"Oh my god. That would save so much time in the morning, getting ready, not to mention help a lot when getting ready for a date. If you don't like your hair, just change it. I'm so jealous!" Rachel confesses with a huge smile on her face. "Is there anywhere in your books that can give me that ability?" Rachel asks Alyssa.

"I feel like I'm in a Harry Potter book," Cara says, "but in a really cool kind of way. I never imagined this stuff could be real." She turns to look at Olivia directly. "Don't get me wrong, I'm still not sure about all of this. I just don't know how to feel about people being able to mess with other's lives, but for now, I'm going to trust Justin and trust that if he thinks you can be good, then I'll give you the benefit of the doubt until you prove otherwise." Saving her from the electric ball of death must have helped Cara soften up to Olivia.

"That's all I can ask for. Thank you." Olivia is sincerely thankful to hear this.

"Enough of the touchy-feely stuff. Let's see some more cool stuff between you and Justin." Trace speaks out.

"Actually, as fun as that would be," Olivia straightens up, "I'm going to head out. I'm a little worn out from today's workout. I, also, promised Alyssa I would teach her a few things out of her new books." This got Alyssa practically jumping up and down. "Justin, I'll see you tomorrow, and I'm sure I'll see you three tomorrow too since you seem to not go away." The smile is big on her face.

Alyssa quickly says her byes as Olivia climbs the stares. It does not take the duo long to make it to the car and then to the house. Alyssa is eager to learn everything she can, as fast as she can.

"You need to be patient. As a magic being, you will catch on fast but you must not take that for granted." Olivia tells her. "I do need to let you know a few things. Please, please, do not take advantage of this. I looked through the books myself and I know there are tempting spells in them. There are some for conjuring items that you desire, love spells, and so on. Be careful with these. They may seem simple but too much can cause problems. You'll start to want more and more and then the magic will take over, and you'll have no control and thats not fun. Trust me." Sher warns Alyssa, hoping that she takes it seriously.

"I promise I will do everything I can to control my impulses. Now what can we start with?"

Olivia has her start with simple spells. 

***

A couple of days pass before Olivia sees Justin again. Justin had decided he needed a couple days to rest up, and he had work he needed to get done. Olivia didn't object because she could use the rest and use the time to help Alyssa with some of her spells, and with her at work during the day, the evening/night time is the only time they have.

Alyssa makes her way through the door after a long day at work. She groans as she trudges through the living room to drop a box on the floor beside her couch and to drop herself on the couch. 

"Long day?" Olivia chuckles at Alyssa's dramatics.

"You could say that." She sits up and looks over at Olivia, and then as if out of nowhere, her energy comes back. "Can we work on a big spell today? I'm thinking possibly the astral projection spell." The smile on her face cut it in half.

"I'm not so sure about that one." Olivia stands up to go retrieve the books from her room, where she was studying them while Alyssa was at work. "I'm thinking something not so body/mind splitting." She has the book open and is looking through the spells. She thumbs through the pages to choose one that she approves of but stops her actions when there is a knock on the door.

Alyssa groans as she moves to stand up, but Olivia stops her. She swings the door open to see Justin standing there with two pizzas in his hands. "So, I was thinking, tonight I could come over here and maybe help you all out. I could simply watch a movie with you two or I could maybe help with any spells you may need helping with." He walks into the kitchen and sets the pizza boxes on the counter. 

Justin starts to look through the cabinets for plates and glasses. Just as he finds them and reaches for them, Olivia stops him and grabs the box. "Just bring the box in here." She brings the box into the living room and places the box on the coffee table then goes back into the kitchen and grabs three beers out of the fridge. Handing one to the other two, she sits down and grabs a slice out of the box and shoves it into her mouth. "You can help me choose a spell for Alyssa."

"Sounds fun!" Justin's face lights up as he sits down beside Olivia and reaches forward to grab a slice himself. He leans over and looks at the pages of the book as she flipped through them. "So what have you learned so far? Can you control things with your mind?" Alyssa huffs. "Read people's minds?" Another huff. "Conjure anything cool?" A loud huff. "Okay. What can you do?"

"I can change water into Kool-aid." Alyssa's sarcastic remark amuses Justin and makes Olivia roll her eyes.

"What a nice skill." Justin laughs.

"Fuck off. This is bullshit. I just recently found out that I have magical powers and have the ability to become a powerful witch and this one promised to help." She aggressively points towards Olivia. "Instead I've learned to change water into a different type of liquid. What's the point?!" Her feelings are very clear.

"I just think you need to take it slow. Perfect your craft while learning the limitations, so you aren't easily taken in by the power. It can and will happen if you aren't careful, especially since you are just now learning it." Olivia shows that she is unwilling to budge on the matter, which only receives another, once again, loud huff from Alyssa.

Justin sits and watches the interaction between the two siblings, and he understands both sides. Olivia only wants to keep Alyssa safe. She knows the dark side and wants to do everything she can from keeping Alyssa from that life. She wants to keep Alyssa safe from any spells that could go wrong, but coming from Alyssa's side, it is a little unfair. Sometimes the best way to learn is through personal experience. A spell gone wrong may be what teaches Alyssa to be safe. Also, Alyssa will never learn if she's not allowed to or taught. Olivia is experienced in the magic world, and can be what Alyssa needs to learn her craft but only if Olivia pushes her to do her best.

Justin stands up and asks Olivia to join him out on the balcony for a little fresh air. Alyssa looks up at him with a hopeful look as Olivia gives him a suspicious look but she joins him nonetheless. The two stand on the balcony, overlooking a lovely courtyard area. Justin shuts the door to give them privacy from Alyssa's eavesdropping and joins Olivia, who is looking out into the courtyard. He places his arms on the railing and silently joins her in her observations. There's a couple who is walking hand-in-hand whispering to each other as they smile with love, oblivious to anyone else that might be around. There's a young woman who holds her head down as she walks slowly back to her apartment. Justin reads heartbreak in her motions as Olivia reads boredom. They watch in silence for a few minutes until Olivia finally turns, facing Justin to ask what he wanted her out here for.

"I wanted to talk to you about Alyssa." He tells her honestly. "I know what its like to have an ability, a power, and not truly know about it. You have agreed to help me, and you have in so many ways. I'm truly grateful, but you are teaching me in a way where you really don't hold back. You push me to my limit even if I don't want to be, sometimes in way that really piss me off." He remembers when she uses Trace as a ploy to get him to use his powers against her. "You told me that the only way I'll learn is through pushing me and making me use my powers. Why are you not doing that for Alyssa? Don't you think she deserves to be able to see what she's really capable of?"

"Its just that very thing that scares me. If she is pushed too far too fast, it may very well push her into a place that none of us will wish for her. This magic can consume a person whole and I don't want that to happen to her." Olivia confesses as she stares down over the balcony.

Justin moves closer and turns her so she will look at him. "I believe that you will do everything in you own power to keep that from happening. She's not learning this on her own. She's asking for your help; she trust that you will lead her to where she should be. What are you afraid of?" He asks her, holding her hand, rubbing soothing circles over the back of it.

"I'm afraid that if I teach her this, she'll take advantage of it, and it could possibly cost her a life, her life." Olivia bites her bottom lip, fighting back emotions that she is unsure of. She's not familiar with these unselfish feelings and they tend to overwhelm her at times. "The use of magic may attract unwanted attention from the wrong kind of people. What if other demons catch on and try to take advantage of her?"

"Not to pick at a sore spot, but this 'unwanted attention' may come around anyway. You said yourself that you are being searched for by your family's soldiers and that you are usually moving around a lot, but you have decided to stay here. Who's to say that they won't find you? They will see you around us and use us whether you like it or not?" Justin tells her. She tries to look away in guilt, but he reaches up with his free hand to hold her in place, so he can continue to look into her eyes. "I'm not saying this so you will run. I want the opposite; I want you to stay. I've become quite fond of you." He smiles at her which relieves some tension in her. "If its possible that these 'soldiers' will show up, don't you think you owe it to Alyssa to teach her everything that she can use. You don't want her to use big spell, but don't you think they will help? Astral projection can help her fool the enemy enough to get away. Conjuring can help her get something to help fight them off. A shield can help keep her safe and maybe even others, like Rachel, Trace, and Cara. I may not be able to protect them at all times, so I would like to think that if I'm not around, someone else will be able to keep them safe. Please if for no other reason, help Alyssa for me, for the others who are helpless." Justin pleads with her.

Olivia stares into his eyes and gets lost in his gentleness, his unselfishness, the sincerity of his words. She closes her eyes as she sighs in defeat. "I see what you are saying, and I guess I do owe it to her. Spells and potions, here we come." She shakes her head and moves to go back inside to share the news with Alyssa, who is overjoyed.

Alyssa hugs Justin tightly to show her appreciation. She was unable to hear what was said, but its obvious that it worked and thats all that mattered to her. She was going to learn her craft and she was going to own it. She couldn't wait.

Several weeks pass by and so much has happened. Justin has control over his powers, and is now helping Olivia with Trace and Rachel. Their lessons are much more laid back than Justin's because between the punches and kicks thrown, laughter is heard and goofing off is done often. Trace is picked on because Olivia chooses to fight with him and she purposely points out that he will never be as strong as her. Justin takes it easy on Rachel, but helps her out as much as he can. 

Alyssa, after Justin was able to convince Olivia to work with her, can now make potions that create flashes of light and thick smoke screens. She can conjure the elements of earth, wind, water, and fire (sorry no heart for you Captain Plant fans). She can perform most spells through practice. She did try astral projection through much insistence and ended up projecting only parts of her. Lucky for her, Olivia was there to bring her back together only to laugh through her I-told-you-so speech. She continues to practice each spell until she knows then and understands them, trusting Olivia's opinion when she tells her that some spells are too much for now.

Cara has come around a little more. She's starting to join the group when they are learning stuff, even joining in a few of the sessions. She's still a little hesitant with the magic but has learned to trust her friends will not bring about any dangers if they can help it.

Olivia is spending what little time she has alone which is usually in the middle of the night, searching her surroundings, making sure all is still safe. Justin got her a job at his company. It's a simple assistant job, but it gives her something to do during the day, she trains whoever during the night, and then keeps her people safe during the night. She's not human so the lack of sleep does not have the same effect on her as it would on a normal person, but   to those who are observant, it is obvious that it is taking its toll on her.  She'll probably end up having an impromptu nap at work and then lose her job, and then she'll be able to sleep more once again.

At this very moment, the group is getting ready to have a cookout/pool party/drink fest with a bunch of their friends. People will be showing up at any moment. Justin has already started to grill to make sure that food will be ready soon after people start to show up, drinks have been on ice for most of the day so no worries on having cold drinks. Pool has been cleaned out for everyone to jump in and have fun. Olivia is in the process of changing when Cara bust into the room.

"Well, its always a pleasure to see you." Olivia decides sarcastic is the way to deal with this. "I guess it's a good thing I'm not the shy type, huh?" 

"Are you and Justin sleeping together?" Cara goes with the straight forward approach over the subtle. 

"Excuse me?" Olivia pauses in her process of tying the top of her suit. "I'm sure that neither one of us is sleeping at the moment."

"You know what I mean." Cara is clearly in no mood to joke around. "Are you and Justin having sex?"

"I can honestly say that I have no idea if Justin is having sex, but I can tell you that he's not having sex with me, not that I think its any of your business." Olivia finishes tying her top and then goes to check herself out in the mirror to make sure all is right. Cara moves behind her. "This leads me to ask, why are you concerned with my or his sex life?" She turns around to look at her directly instead of through the mirror. "Aw, I see. You want to be with him."

"Don't read me." The order is serious but it makes Olivia laugh.

"I don't have to read you. Its clear on your face. If you want to be with him so bad, why are you here interrogating me instead of trying to start something with Justin? That's one thing I'll never understand with humans. You can't just tell someone how you feel directly. You have to go around so many corners and down so many unnecessary pathways to get there." She rolls her eyes.

"I can't tell him." Cara's head immediately drops to look at the ground. At first Olivia thought about walking away to leave her alone with her thoughts but she can feel the doubt and fear radiating off her. She sighs as she asks Cara why she thinks this. "We used to be together. We dated for over a year before he decided it was too dangerous for me to be with him. I always assumed it was his way of breaking up with me without hurting my feelings. Justin is a great guy and will do anything to make everyone around happy and safe even at the expense of his own, so I started to believe that he really did see himself as dangerous. I was willing to take the risk but he wasn't." Cara looks up and there are tears in her eyes and a narrow path that connects those to the ones that are resting on her jawline. "But you've taught him how to control his powers and you have made him comfortable with who he is and he's happy for the first time in a very long time. I assumed that you two would grow together because of this."

"I'm confused." Olivia makes sure to look Cara directly in the eyes. "Are you wanting us to be together or are you wanting us to not be so you two can be together?8 You are really sending me crazy signals here."

"I just need to know if you are because I don't think I can handle rejection from him again."

"Well I don't know how Justin feels about you. I just know that we are not together in anyway other than friends." Olivia assures the girl.

Cara nods and wipes at her face and laughs humorlessly at herself. "I suppose we need to get out there before they start wondering what's going on up here." She turns to the door and Olivia sees her straighten her back and shoulders and what looks to be her shaking herself out.

"Hey, Cara," Olivia calls out, and she turns in response. "If you want me to I can make Justin love you." She smiles to let her know it was a small joke.

Cara laughs in appreciation. "I'll be sure to let you know." She leaves the room to join the party downstairs.

After the talk with Cara, the night went very well. Everyone enjoyed themselves. Bellies were full, alcohol levels were up, and the pool was full of happy people. Olivia and Alyssa were a bit overwhelmed, especially Olivia, at first while they were being introduced to everyone but it was good to meet new people. Alyssa ventured out to hang with the new people she had met, but Olivia chose to stick around those that she was already comfortable with. 

Olivia is sitting with Cara and some girl that she believes introduced herseld as 'Ashley' but not sure enough to address by it. She did watch Cara as she made frequent looks over at Justin who is manning the grill. He has a beer in one hand and the grill utensil in the other, laughing loudly at something someone said to him. Olivia leans over and touches Cara's arm to get her attention.

"Why don't you go over there and join the conversation? Join in on the fun?" Olivia questions her. "Its not like you don't know these people so you should be comfortable around them, and you can remind him why you were together before."

Cara looks back and forth between Olivia and over where Justin is talking to three other people, all laughing and goofing off. She is contemplating if she can do this. "I don't know. Its different when you want something to happen."

"Would it help you if I eased your nerves a bit? I know you don't like the thought of me meddling with people's, especially your, minds but it wouldn't be anything huge. I would just help ease your nerves until you are able to be comfortable on your own." Olivia offers with a genuine smile.

"You'd do that?"

"Of course, but only if thats what you'd like. I can do much more like make him so horny that you can't beat him off with a two by four but I think that's going a little too far, don't you think?" Olivia winks at her with a big smile.

Cara laughs loud at this. "I think I'm okay but could you watch for just a second? If you see me struggling, maybe send a wave of calmness over me."

"Most definitely. Now go get him." Olivia encourages her as she gets up and walks over to Justin.

She watches as Cara walks right up to stand beside Justin. He's moving his arms around while telling a story to whoever is listening. Cara stands there quietly, wringing her hands. Olivia concentrates on what is going on and decides to help just a little. Justin finishes his story and looks down at Cara with a smile. He throws the hand that is holding his beer around her shoulders and pulls her into a sideways hug. Its nothing huge but a friendly hug. Cara's hands drop, and one arm makes its way around Justin's waist. She looks back at Olivia who shrugs as if she had nothing to do with it. Olivia gives her a thumbs-up gesture and then gets up to join the people in the pool.

The rest of the night goes well with worries of any kind, other than who is sober enough to drive home. Some people get rides from someone at the party while others call someone else to come get them or a cab to pick them up. Justin has no problem with people leaving their cars until the morning if it means they get home safely. 

The party winds down and it is finally back to the original six lying around on the lounge chairs, dreading the cleanup.

"We can always have Alyssa cast a cleanup spell, so we don't have to." Olivia jokes around.

"Can she?" Rachel asks hoping its possible.

"No," Justin states, "we made the mess and we are going to clean it up. Now go to bed and get some sleep. We can do it in the morning."

Rachel doesn't argue as she walks herself to the guest house and to bed. Trace wishes everyone a goodnight and leaves, but not before Justin warned him about what would happen if he didn't come back in the morning for cleanup duty. Alyssa is slightly drunk so Olivia grabs the keys from her to drive them home. Cara looks a bit tipsy herself, so she offers her a ride to her own place.

"I don't want to be a bother. I live on the other side of town. I'll be okay." She replies. 

"Nope, you aren't." Justin says grabbing her keys. "How about you two go home? Cara can just stay here. I have extra bedrooms." This statement makes Cara's smile increase to tenfold. "You two are more than welcome to stay too if you think you need to." The smile decreases a bit at this point.

"I think we'll be just fine. Thanks so and thanks for having us over. We had a great time." Olivia tells him. "We'll most definitely be back in the morning to help with cleanup." Justin pulls them both into a hug and wishes them a goodnight and locks up before he and Cara go to bed, in separate beds.

The next morning was dreadful for the group, but they made it through cleanup. Granted, Olivia talked Alyssa through a conjuring spell that brought Trace to them, in only his boxers, after he refused to get out of bed to help. He was not happy with this outcome, but the others found it most amusing. According to Cara, she and Justin had woken up early and had coffee together and talked like they used to and she has a good feeling they may be on the right track to getting together eventually. The day is spent cleaning up and then goofing around as they spend the latter part of the day just lying around and watching TV and eating leftovers from the cookout.

The following weeks are spent in similar ways as the previous ones were. Olivia coming over and helping everyone perfect whatever it is they want to work on: hand-to-hand combat, weapons (for Justin), magic. She did teach Justin how to use his powers to put on a pretty cool light show that comes in handy when they want to be entertained for hours whenever they choose to get high.

Olivia is starting to work more hours during the day because there are pushing a new software and she needs to make sure all the advertisements are getting out. She's also learning how to design small things with Justin during their lunches they share. 

Of course, during the night while most are asleep, she still goes out on a short walk around to make sure all still looks well. This is the longest she has ever stayed in one place and the longer she stays, the chances of found increases. 

She is getting more and more tired but she doesn't say anything to anyone because she doesn't want to disappoint them. She really enjoys being able to help everyone out and she enjoys having a job that doesn't require her to kill anyone, and she loves being around her friends. They make her feel like she has a purpose and she doesn't want to lose t hat, so she keeps pushing on. 

At first it didn't affect anything, but she did notice over time her reflexes were slowing down, almost allowing Justin to get the upper-hand several times during their sessions. She can tell she's getting weaker too. There are times where she can't control her powers as well and everyone's thoughts start to intrude and become overbearing. Her moods are out of whack because she can't tell who is feeling what, including herself. To top it all off, a few times while working with Justin, she could feel the electricity from his currents shot at her and even has burns from a few of them. He body is losing control and she doesn't know how much longer she'll be able to hold out. 

Tonight she is over at Justin's. She will get through this night and then this weekend, she will rest. She will not last much longer if she doesn't do something and she can't put her friends at risk because she's too stubborn to admit weakness. With her powers out of her complete control she tells the others that she wants it to be just Justin and her tonight. This way if anything goes wrong, they don't get hurt because she couldn't stop it.

The group whines and complains at first, but soon stop when they see that she's not going to budge. Justin goes down first and Olivia follows behind and catches Cara's eyes before shutting the door. Olivia could tell that the girl is not happy with the idea of them being down there alone, but she trust Olivia enough to not say anything.

"Are you feeling okay?" Justin asks her as soon as she reaches the bottom on the stairs. "You don't look so well."

"I'm fine. I'm a little tired, but I'll get some sleep after this. It's no big deal." She shrugs it off and gets in position to start this standoff the two always have.

Justin sees that she doesn't want to discuss it and pushes it back. She would tell him if there is a problem, especially if it was one that involved danger. 

***

The power duo has been downstairs for over an hour at this point and the others are sitting upstairs waiting for them to come up to see who won for the night, knowing it would be Olivia as it always is. 

"Well I'm about to go change into my PJ's," announces Rachel as she stands up. She takes three steps before she comes to a halt.

"Forget where your room is?" Trace jokes but is quickly shushed by Rachel. "What the hell?"

"Quiet!" She commands and turns slightly and leans as if she's listening for something. "Did you not hear that?"

"Hear what?" Alyssa sits up straighter, now interested in the conversation.

They were all silent for a a second and the Rachel exlaims, "That! Did you hear that?"

Everyone shook their head and gave her a confused look. "I think you're hearing things." Trace laughs at her.

"Mute the TV." Rachel moves to where she's closer to the basement door and then stops again. A few seconds go by, and she stands up straight with a huge smile on her face, and then waves for the others to join her as she stood close to the door but not touching it. "Listen."

The group moves close to the door and waits, in silence, to hear what she is talking about. It isn't long before they hear something. It sounds like a bunch of things crashing and then something hitting the wall hard.

"What's the big deal?" Cara asks. "It always sounds like that when they are down there." She rolls her eyes at all of them hovering to hear this.

"No, its not." Rachel tells her. "We usually hear really loud crashing and thudding if they are firing at each other or fighting. "Thats not the same, not to mention I don't think I've ever heard moaning before." The smile turned into a smirk.

"You don't think..." Trace's face lit up. "You don't think that's why she insisted that it be just them tonight do you? That lucky dog. He never told me that they were hooking up, or even close to it. I'm going to have to beat his ass now."

"Olivia told me that they weren't sleeping together. So it has to be something else" Cara told them, moving away from the door as if it were going to come after her.

The others stay where they are and continue to listen. All had smiles on their faces. "I knew it would happen eventually. Justin's been needing to get some for a long time now, and he's been in an extra good mood these last couple of weeks, so maybe they just started sleeping together." Rachel reasons.

"I don't believe it." Cara states quietly but no one seems to be listening as they continue to rave about what could be going on and for how long.

"I did tell Olivia that it was time to move on from her last heartbreak. She may have finally taken my advice." Alyssa says, happy for her half-sister.

All of a sudden they all jump after hearing a much louder thud and a loud moan. 

"This is fantastic!!" Rachel exclaims. "I'm really going to go change now." She turns to go back to her original task. 

"I can't wait for details," declares Trace, causing everyone else to roll their eyes. "Where you going, Cara?" He asks as he looks up to see Cara heading to the front door.

"I think I'm going to go home. What those two do in their private time is their own business and I prefer not to know the details." She tries to keep her emotions calm as she makes her way out.

Trace just shrugs and goes back to listening. 

"I think we should stop. Its just wrong." Alyssa says as she pulls on Trace's arm, pulling him away from the door. "I know I wouldn't want someone listening in on me, so we need to go back to the TV." She pulls him all the way to the couch where they both sit and turn the sound on the TV back on, turning up the volume.

Its another hour before they hear the two emerge from downstairs. Both are sweaty and seem to have a difficulty catching their breath. They walk into the living room and see all them staring at them from where they sit, immediately causing the two to question them.

"Just curious how the workout went." Trace smirks, winking at Justin which just gets him a weird look in return.

"It was pretty good. I got a few over on Olivia. She now has to admit that I definitely know what I am doing and that she can't deny that she's happy with that." Justin answers with a teasing smile.

Olivia just rolls her eyes. "I'm thinking that if you would keep some of your thoughts to yourself, I would be distracted."

The three sitting around start to laugh and Justin and Olivia give them a weird look.

"I don't know what you three are up to, and at this point I'm too tired to care. Tonight's workout wore me out. I'm going to shower and then to bed." Justin tells them. "If you all would lock up when you are done that would be great. Also, its really late so if you plan on staying up much later, Alyssa and Olivia, you two are more than welcome to stay the night. I have extra rooms." Justin tells them.

"Thanks. That would be great." Alyssa tells him.

Olivia gives her sister another weird look. "You want to stay here? You never want to stay the night. You want to sleep in your own bed." She tells her. "Besides I need to shower, too. I'm nasty from that workout. I just want to shower and go to bed."

Trace bites his lip to keep from responding to this. "Well there's a second bathroom and I can show you where the towels are if you just want to shower here. Justin wouldn't mind." He says, standing up to get her a towel. "I'm sure that Rachel wouldn't mind letting you borrow something of hers to sleep in."

Rachel nods her agreement and leaves to go get said clothes.

Alyssa remains seated on the couch. "I'm extremely suspicious, but I can't seem to straighten out your thoughts at the moment. Its a big jumble mess or I'd know what you three were up to." She tells Alyssa as she goes to follow where she saw Trace go earlier. At this moment, she did not care what the others were up to. She just wants to get cleaned up and get into bed.

Olivia gets the towel and sleepwear from Trace and Rachel, but she's a little curious about clothes considering they were extremely revealing. When she gets out of the shower, she sees that everyone has gone to bed. The TV is off and the lights were off. She finds her way to the bedroom and tries to get settled in. She's just about to sleep when she hears something coming from the living room area, so she figures she'd check it out since she's still awake. 

Weird enough, Olivia finds nothing that could have made the noise so she heads back to the bedroom. Just as she reaches her door though, she feels a sharp pain in her chest and stomach. She grabs her chest, trying to figure out what is going on. She makes it into her room and shut the door as her breath starts to leave her. She has an extreme difficulty trying to catch any kind of breath. Her chest pains increase with each effort. She has no idea what is going on, and she falls to her knees in great agony. Olivia thinks about going to wake up Justin or Alyssa in hopes that they could help but she can't find strength to get back up or the breath to help her yell out. As the pain takes over, she feels as if she's being pulled out of her body and everything goes black. 

The sun rises and for the first time anyone can ever recall, Trace is up with it and already at Justin's. Not so surprising, Rachel is up also waiting around for someone to wake up. The two whisper between each other wanting to go peek in Justin's room to see if Olivia joined him in keeping it warm, but neither one having the guts to do so. 

"What if he shoots one of this bolt things at me? What if she hurls something at me? I think I'm more afraid of her then him." Trace admits still whispering.

"You know," the two are interrupted, "you two do not whisper as quietly as you think." Alyssa comes walking in, tying the belt of the robe Rachel let her borrow. She lets out a loud yawn as she stretches. "I didn't hear any noises last night, so I assume the two kept their bed-warming acts in the basement." She plops down on the couch. "I cannot believe I am up this freakin' early. This is ridiculous."

"It is now that there's no fun stories to wait for." Trace whines.

"You my perverted friend seem to never change do you?" Rachel rolls her eyes.

"Well, I know how to get info." Alyssa announces. "Let's go ask Olivia."

"I don't know. I think we should let the two sleep a little longer. I'm not sure how Olivia is in the morning but Justin is one big crab that can electrocute you if he so chooses to." Rachel tells her, stopping her from going towards their bedrooms. "Plus, I'm not sure if you two have noticed but she has been looking really worn out lately. Let's just wait until she awakes before bombarding her with questions."

"Fine," Alyssa gives in and sits back down. 

The three sit around for a couple of hours as they continue to wait. "I hate just sitting here. I think I may go peek to see if Olivia ended up at least crawling into Justin's bed to snuggle." Trace says as he rolls his eyes at his choice of the word 'snuggle'.

"Really? Do you honestly see Olivia as the snuggler?" Alyssa laughs, trying to stifle it. "I can see Justin crawling into Olivia's bed before I see the vice versa."

"Then why don't we go and check that right now?" All heads turn to Cara who has now entered the house. "Clearly we are all interested on the outcome of last night. There's no point in putting it off." 

As the original three want to go peek just pure fun and curiosity, it is clear Cara has different motives. The girl looks as if she didn't sleep at all last night, and instead used sandpaper to rub her eyes with. They were red and puffy and slightly swollen.

"Dude, Cara, you look like shit. What happened to you last night?" Trace laughs at his comment but Rachel elbows him to tell him to shut it. There was more to it that they weren't completely in on.

"That doesn't matter," Cara answers as she makes her way down the hall quietly. She stops in front of the guest room that had been given to Olivia. She waits until the others have joined her before she slowly turns the knob and opens the door a little at a time.

What causes the group the group to freeze in shock is not what they were expecting to find. Olivia is lying on the floor at the foot of the bed, sprawled out. Its only seconds before Rachel rushes over to the bed and pulls the top sheet off and covers her up. The nightie is not so amusing now. She orders Trace to go get water as she tests Olivia's vitals not sure if demons have pulses like normal people. Fortunately, she felt a faint heartbeat as she called out her name, getting no response in return.

Alyssa pulls Olivia into her lap, tapping her face and moving her limbs, begging for some kind of response. Rachel jumps back up to her feet to go check on Trace and go wake up Justin. She looks over at Cara who is just standing over the two on the floor.

"Are you just going to stand there?"

"What the hell am I supposed to do?" Cara bites back.

Rachel just scoffs and leaves the bedroom to walk across the narrow hallway to bust into Justin's room. He had still been asleep but slowly comes to when Rachel throws the door open.

"What the hell, Rachel?" He rolls over, throwing his comforter over his head. "Its too early. And why the hell are you awake?" He is not happy to be woken up, especially in this manner.

"I'm borrowing your robe and I think you should throw on a pair of pants and get out here." She says as she exits the room to go back to Olivia, without sharing anymore. 

Justin, unaware of what is going on just groans and rolls back over in bed. "what-the-hell-ever. I'm going back to sleep." He groans as he drifts back off.

Trace rushes back down the hallway with a glass of water. Alyssa is sitting sitting on the floor holding Olivia as Rachel tries to slip the robe around her so they can move her to the bed without worrying about the sheet slipping. Before moving her, Alyssa takes the water from Trace and tries splashing her a bit with it. At first it appears to have no effect but a couple attempts later, Olivia's eyes start to twitch a bit like they were trying to open. A very faint moan escapes and the group freezes to see what is going to happen. Alyssa splashes her a couple more times, but no response once again. 

Cara snatches the glass from Alyssa's hand. "Give me that. Let's try this." She says as she dumps the whole glass on Olivia's head.

Alyssa is about to drop her and attack Cara herself when she feels an almost violent jerk and then all of a sudden Olivia jerks up and takes a deep breath as if she hadn't been breathing at all. She looks around and starts moving away from everyone, into a corner, lost and confused.

"Where am I? What's going on?" The look of terror was frightening for the others to see.

"Calm down, Olivia. You're still at Justin's. We had a party last night and you and Alyssa decided to stay over so you didn't have to drive home so late. You must have blacked out or something. We were trying to get you to wake up." Rachel tries to explain calmly, even though her own heart is racing.

What the hell is going on? We need to figure out what caused this? Olivia jerks her head towards Trace. She studies him with a deep look of confusion.

This is all bullshit. The girl has a talent for getting attention. This is just karma coming back after what she did, stabbing me in the back. Olivia jerks her head over to Cara this time, giving her the same look.

"Are you okay? Why don't you come lie down?" Alyssa asks her, trying not to alarm her.

Dude, something is up with her. She's acting crazy. Olivia looks back at Trace, who is now giving her a crazy confused look.

"I...I can...I can read your mind." Olivia stutters out.

"Yes, we know. You've already told us this. We know about your ability to manipulate our emotions too. What happened last night? Did yours and Justin's session lead to you getting your head struck too hard?" Trace's laugh doesn't hold much humor in this situation.

"Olivia, you need to lie down, and we'll go get Justin and try to figure out what's going on. I assume a normal doctor is not going to be worth too much in this case." Rachel walks slowly over to her and reaches out for her hand.

Olivia takes it and stands up, but doesn't move to the bed. "You all are very worried. Don't be. I'm okay."

"Of course, we're all worried. We just found you lying in the floor unconscious, and now you're acting funny," replies Alyssa.

"All of you care so much, except you." Olivia points to Cara. "You seem to be happy with me being hurt. You have such rage, hate, and is that jealousy I'm sensing?"

"You promised not to read us. Justin swore to us that you would stay out of our minds unless we gave you permission." Cara spits out.

"Look, I think we are all a little on edge right now." Alyssa moves to stand between Olivia and Cara, facing the former one. "I'm sure that Cara does not hate you and that you are just misreading something. We're all friends here and we are all worried. Now lets go wake Justin and see what we can find."

Alyssa moves towards the door with her hand on Olivia's arm, but she realizes that her sister is not budging. Instead, she is staring Cara down with a challenging glare. "Why do you hate me so much? What did I ever do to you?" Olivia asks, taking a couple of steps towards Cara. "All I've ever wanted is for us to be friends because Justin cares about yo so much." It is clear that Olivia is hurt by what she has discovered. Cara does not respond. She just stands there and glares back at Olivia. "Why..." Olivia starts to asks again but stops, a smiles forming on her lips. "You hate me for last night. You don't think I deserve Justin. You're in love with Justin, and you're jealous about last night."

"That's crazy. Cara isn't in love with Justin. They broke up a long time ago." Trace scoffs at the idea, but groans loudly when Rachel's elbow connects with his rib once again.

Its not even a second before Cara's face turns to a deep shade of red. Rachel and Trace can't control themselves when they involuntarily take a few steps back when seeing her face. They have never seen Cara look so mad. She usually the one who is quiet and has no problems with anyone. 

"Please, calm down, Cara. We need to talk about this. If you could--" Olivia's cuts off her sentence when she jumps to the right to dodge the vase flying at her head, shattering on the wall behind her.

The other three gasps as this. They could not believe what just happened. Following the sound of the shattering vase, they all hear quick footsteps as Justin runs out of his room, fighting to pull up a pair of sweatpants.

"What the hell is going on in here?!" He yells when he sees the glass shards all over the floor and glaring at Olivia.

Olivia, at this moment, stands back up straight and runs over to Justin, wrapping her arms around his waist. "Justin, thank God. She just threw a vase at my head. She's gone crazy."

Everyone stares at Olivia with confusion, including Justin. All unsure on how to react to this; Olivia just openly showed fright and held onto Justin for help. not to mention her not doing something herself to deal with Cara. Justin just puts his arm around Olivia and pulls her tighter into him for the moment. 

"What the hell are you doing, Cara? What makes you think its okay to throw my stuff around in my house and at someone else for that matter? Why would you be throwing something at Olivia anyway? Its too early for her to be pissing anyone off." Justin looks down at Olivia to give her a smile to let her know he is only teasing, but quickly looks back up at Cara and his smile disappears and is replaced with a grim frown. 

Cara stays quiet as she searches through the room and looks from face to face seeing everyone staring at her with shock, peaked interest, and as if she had gone crazy. She starts to tell Justin that she has no idea what came over her until she feels a mass wave of anger overcome her. "That stupid bitch has come into our group and is doing whatever she can to tear us apart. She knows that we are best friends so she's doing what she can to come between us." She yells out her accusations, forcing everyone's eyes to expand to the size of dinner plates and jaws hit the floor fast and hard. "She's evil and she's got you wrapped her around her finger. She's a demon and you are half-demon. She wants to pull you over to her side and then she'll just dispose of us when she's done with us."

"What the fuck?!" Rachel demands, but gasps a little when she realizes that she said it out loud.

"Cara, I think you need to cool off. Maybe you need to go back home and just get a grasp on things, and then we can talk about this later." Justin is so shocked by her reaction, he has no idea how to react to it.

"I'm so sorry, Justin," Olivia replies, pulling away from him slightly so she can look up at him. "I've obviously done something to upset her. Maybe its time that I go home. I'll just quickly change my clothes and leave. She can stay here and maybe talk things out with you." Olivia moves over to grab her clothes where she had thrown them on a chair the previous night. 

"No, she's the one that seems to have an issue. She can leave." Justin tells her.

"I'm the one who has an issue?!" Cara shrieks. "The sex must be amazing with her for you to be able to not see how she is just manipulating us all into thinking she's some goddess. I cannot believe in one night, she fucks you and you go throw me out like trash."

Trace, Rachel, and Alyssa all gasps again and when Justin turns to look at them, they all make a point to look around at something else, avoiding eye contact.

"What are you talking about? Not that its any of yall's business but me and Olivia are not sleeping together and we did not 'fuck' last night." Justin gives them a lost look, but one that demands answers.

"Don't lie to us. We heard you downstairs. Tell him!" Cara orders the others who are still trying to avoid any involvement in this.

"What is she talking about that you 'heard' us downstairs?" Justin asks, staring straight at Trace.

"Well we kind of heard you two making a lot of ruckus, accompanied by some loud moans, plus Olivia wanted for you all to have a nice private session." Trace bites his lip in nervousness.

Jusitn laughs, but its a chilling laugh. "You all assume we were fucking because of 'ruckus' and 'moans'? For your information, she wanted it to be private because for one she was tired and unable to block out all of your thoughts. and two she was throwing me around. The loud ruckus was her sending me across the room to hit a wall where I followed up by moaning out in pain." Justin explains. Trace opens his mouth to speak again but Justin raises his hand to stop him. "Before you feel the need to bring up her moaning, I got a few good hits in myself. I sent her across the room a couple of times too. That's why I said she needed to admit I'm as good. You all seriously thought we were doing it in the basement??" Justin could not believe this.

Rachel and Trace shrug but can't find their words to answer. Justin just rolls his eyes as he shakes his head. "This is ridiculous. Well that explains a few looks on your parts, but that does not explain why you decided to show up at my house and start to accuse Olivia of outrageous things and throw something at her." He turns back to Cara who is now leaning against a far wall, with her head down, and tears rolling down her cheeks.

"I'm so sorry. I just thought that she was purposely going behind my back to hurt me." Cara looks up at him.

"How would our hooking up be her way of hurting you? That doesn't make since." Justin asks.

"All I'm saying is that...," Cara tries to breathe deeply to stay calm but she feels her anger and jealousy boiling up again, "all I'm saying is that she is evil. She's up to something, and I'm the only one that seems to see it. Alyssa is her sister and is apparently magical too so that automatically has Alyssa on her side. Rachel and Trace are too retarded to see that all of this not some cheesy magic trick used to entertain boys and girls. She's a demon, self-confessed 'evil' demon. You are just so desperate to have someone around you that is like you that you'll take whatever you can get. Ever since she came around, we haven't been good enough for you. You'd prefer to be around her or in that stupid basement doing who knows what. I'm the only one that sees it that she's doing what she can to get me out." Cara tells them. "She knows how I feel about her, so she tries to get as close to you as she can, sex being one of her fun tools she can use."

"We are not sleeping together." Justin growls.

"Yeah, for now."

"This is getting out of hand. I think you need to leave." Justin tells her. 

At this point, Olivia steps in between the two friends. "You know what, Justin. My head is hurting because I can't seem to keep control over all these emotions here and all the thoughts. My powers must be out of whack or something. I just want to go home." She gives him a pouty look. "Will you drive me home?" 

"Why would he do that, Olivia?" Alyssa asks her. "We can just both leave.You get dressed and I'll go get my clothes on too and we can just leave."

Olivia looks over at her. "Right....we live together so that would be the rational thing. So, I guess I better change clothes."

Trace and Rachel leave the room with Alyssa. Justin walks over to Olivia who is now untying her robe. "I need to get some fresh air and to get out and clear my head. Could I still drive you home? I'll let Alyssa know." 

"Of course, I'd love that." Olivia nods and then pulls Justin into a tight hug. 

She looks over Justin's shoulder to Cara who is now moving slowly towards the door. She happens to look up and catches Olivia's eyes which are staring back at her. She has an evil smirk on her face, and then she makes a point to pull her face closer to Justin, burying her face into his neck. Cara closes her eyes tightly as if she make the image disappear. She turns away from them and then proceeds out the door.

Justin informs Alyssa that he's going to drive Olivia and they will just see her at home. He tells Cara that he expected her gone by the time he got back, and they will be discussing this after he has calmed down about it. Olivia gets changed and comes out to tell everyone bye. Once again, her face is revealing a look of sadness and what looks to be humiliation over the mornings events. Rachel tells her not to worry about it; things will fix themselves. Alyssa leaves first, but Justin and Olivia are only five minutes behind her.

The very second, Justin's truck is completely out of the driveway, Rachel quickly turns to Cara. "What the fuck was that?" Rachel screams out, furious with the way her friend just acted.

Cara doesn't answer though. She is finding it hard to breathe and then falls to her knees, sobbing. Rachel steps back to look at her friend. She has officially taken a one-way trip to Looneyville. Rachel has no idea what is going on, but she does know that her friend, though she may have taken one too many crazy pills when she got up this morning, still needs her and obviously needs someone to talk to.

"What to tell us what that was about earlier? We had no idea you harvested so much hate for Olivia. You should have come talked to us." Rachel sits on the floor, beside where Cara is still kneeling. She rubs her back soothingly in hopes that she can help her friend.

Trace joins them on the floor and grabs Cara's hand. "You do know that we love you right? We would never let someone come between us, not even Olivia." He assures her, pulling her down to sit completely on the floor and into his embrace. He hold her tight.

It takes a moment, but Cara is able to calm her sobs down to less hysterical tears and a frustrating hiccup. "I don't know what came over me. I really don't hate Olivia." Cara has a pleading look in her eyes, begging her friends to believe her. "I know I was very slow to accept her fully in the beginning, but I really started to like her. I admit I was extremely hurt when I thought she and Justin had hooked up. I shared with her that I believe I still have feelings for Justin and that I wanted to see if we could try things again. Then last night happened and I assumed that she was not as good of a person that I allowed myself to believe." Cara confesses to her friends.

"Is that why you went off the deep end in there?" Rachel asks, needing to understand what had happened and why her friend is so upset.

"I honestly don't know what happened in there." Cara pulls away from Trace so she could sit up straighter. "I really don't know. One minute, I'm hurt and determined to ask Olivia face-to-face what happened last night and then we found he on the floor. I really was concerned, but I know somewhere deep inside me, there was a part of me that was comforted that karma had its way with her. I felt terrible for feeling that at all, but then she made it sounds like I was thrilled that something had happened." She was wringing her hands as if she could squeeze something out of them that would help explain it. "I started feeling an uncontrollable amount of hate, anger, and jealousy overcome me. I didn't know what to do and it was like I lost control of my own body. I felt myself pick the vase up and throw it but I couldn't stop myself from doing it."

Trace and Rachel look at each other with a worried look on their faces. Their friend is upset over what she had done, and has no idea why she did it. Something is not right.

Cara took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "When Justin came in the room, I felt the anger start to disappear and I was embarrassed and confused and worried that he would hate me. I tried to explain it to him, but before I could I felt my anger start to go crazy again. I hear myself yelling but its like I'm on the inside and can't stop myself. I said horrible things and I don't even know why I would say them. I can't lie, some of the things I've thought but I never truly believe most of them." Cara stopped for a second and then looked at both of her friends, grabbing their hands. "I'm so sorry I said you were stupid. I really don't think that. I felt so much anger that I wanted to hurt everyone in the room however I could. I love you guys and I am so sorry."

"Its no big deal. I was too shocked to truly register what you had said if you want my honest answer." Trace squeezes her hand a bit. "We love you, Cara, and we just want to know what's going on. What can we do to help?"

"I don't know." She feels herself starting to cry again. "I don't know what's wrong with me. I couldn't control anything and now Justin probably hates me, Alyssa will probably hate me for talking to her and Olivia like that, not to mention Olivia will definitely hate me. I just don't get it. I was fine and then so angry, but it was like it all just poured out of me when they left. I didn't feel anything except sadness and humiliation."

Rachel jerked her head up and looked over at Trace. "You felt different after they left?" She asks Cara, without looking at her. She kept eye contact with Trace. "So your anger disappeared after Justin left to take Olivia home?"

Trace looked at Rachel as she questioned Cara's last statements. He shakes his head. "I know what you are thinking, Rachel, and its just not true. She wouldn't do that!' He demands. "There has to be another reason." Cara looks between the two and wants to know what they are talking about. "Rachel thinks that Olivia manipulated your moods, but there's no way she would do that. She promised she wouldn't first off and second, what would be her reasoning for doing so? She didn't get anything out of all this, except a vase that almost hit her in the face." Trace explains and feels Cara tighten up at the last part.

As the three continued to try to figure out what is going on with Olivia, Justin takes his time making it back to her apartment. Something happened earlier and he wants to make sure that she is okay. 

"I have a terrible headache. I can't get these voices out of my head," Olivia holds her head in her hands. 

Justin reaches over with hand and rubs her necks at the base of her head the best he could while driving. "Maybe we should get Alyssa to look into this. It could be some kind of spell or something by someone in your family."

"If I could just control this thing, I'd be okay," she says. "Its not so bad when its just you but the more people that are around, the worse it gets. I can't block out the thoughts and its giving me a migraine."

"I just don't understand what's going on. You had control over them and then last night you were acting strange and now you can't. We should look into this?" Justin is worried about her.

Olivia just shakes it off as being overworked, just tired and in need of a nap. "I'll be just fine if I can get these voices to quiet down enough for me to get to sleep. Want to help me out?" Olivia smiles up at him. 

"I'll try." He tells her as he pulls into the parking lot and then helps her out. "We can get upstairs and get Alyssa to look into this and maybe find something that will help you relax a little."

"No!" She exclaims, causing Justin to stop and look at her with alarm. "I...I just mean that I'd like it to be less people around if I can help it, less thoughts have to try to block."

Justin nods and even though he's still confused about the way she was acting. He leads the way to the apartment and find Alyssa already there as assumed, waiting for them to get there. Alyssa rushes over as soon as they walk through the door, checking to make sure Olivia is indeed okay and everything. Olivia insists that she is fine, with a slightly surprising attitude. 

"Maybe we should work on getting control over your powers, at least until we can figure out what is wrong with them." Justin says.

"You're having problems with your powers?" Alyssa begins to show even more concern. 

"I'm fine. Justin and I are just going to go to my bedroom and work on them." She smiles.

"We can do it out here," Justin tells her, "Maybe Alyssa can look up in one of her books what is going on."

Olivia leans over and whispers, not as quiet as she though, "well I was hoping that maybe we could do something a little more fun than studying. Maybe you can help distract me from the invading thoughts of others. It could prove to be fun." She winks at him.

Justin and Alyssa both give her a weird look. "um, I don't think that would..." he stops and looks at Olivia. His face changes from confused to admiring. His eyes deepen in color as he stares at her. He looks as if he is going to say something, but before any words come out, he practically jumps Olivia.

Alyssa's jaw drops in complete shock as Justin and Olivia devour each other in the middle of her living room. "At least you can do it take it to the bedroom," she states slowly, "what is going around here?" 

The two move to the bedroom as Alyssa moves to grab her phone. She calls Rachel to relay the events that just happened, but before she could Rachel invites her over, needing to talk to her about Cara. 

Alyssa agrees to come over. There is something going on and they need to get to the bottom of this. She grabs her three books, hoping one of them can explain it. If not they would be making a trip back to the store. Something is wrong with Olivia and none of them can afford this to continue.

Justin has grabbed Olivia and carried her into her bedroom. Being caught up in the moment, he barely makes it to the bed. Clothes are ripped off and the two are down to their underwear. Justin moves to lie on top of Olivia, his hands roaming her body as he continues to kiss her. He removes his lips from her and slowly moves them down her jawline down to her neck. He pauses here when he hears her gasp in pleasure. Olivia rubs his hands through his hair, not-so-gently tugging on it. She moves her lips to his ear and nibbles on his earlobe.

He moves his hands up to slide her bra straps down her shoulders. He starts to move away from Olivia to remove her bra when he hears her whisper. "Please stop."

Justin stops all of his movements and quickly pulls away from Olivia. "I'm sorry. I don't know what's gotten into me. If don't want to do this if..." he trails off.

"What?! Of course I want to do this. What's wrong?" Olivia questions.

"I thought I heard you tell me to stop."

"I didn't. I promise. I want this to happen." She assures him by pulling him down into a passionate kiss. 

Justin goes along with it, but it isn't a minute later when he hears her whisper again. This time he swore she was begging him to stop. He jerks away as if he had been burned. He stands up and turns away, grabbing his head and pulling at his hair. 

"What's wrong? What's going on? Did I do something wrong?" Olivia sits up and pulls her pillow in front of her to cover her. 

"I swear I keep hearing you whisper that you want to stop," Justin informs her and stops her when she starts to speak. "If its not you then the only thing I can think of is that its my subconscious telling me that this isn't right. We can't do this." He starts to pull his pants back on. "I don't want this to cause a problem between us. I'm not the type of guy that has meaningless sex with someone and I don't know how this started. I consider you a good friend, I appreciate everything you've done for me, and I don't want there to be this tension between us if we were to start something and it didn't work out." He is fully clothed but hesitant to leave. "I'm so sorry. Please forgive me and I hope to see you later. Please get some rest and feel better."

Justin walks out of the bedroom and slowly makes his way through the apartment to the front door. Olivia remains on her bed, feeling rejected and shocked how things played out. She grabs her robe and throws in on as she rushes out, hoping to catch Justin before he leaves.

"Justin!" The front door is just about to latch when he pushes it back open. "Please don't go." The pleading in her voice is almost heartbreaking.

"I need to. Just do me a favor." He walks up to her and both hands on her arms. "Just breathe. I know you've said several times you can get overwhelmed with emotions and thoughts and that deep breathing helps. See? I do listen." He smiles charmingly at her. "Breathe and concentrate on your own thoughts and emotions and lets the others fade away." He leans down and kisses on the forehead before letting her go and leaves.

Meanwhile, Alyssa has made it to Justin's without a speeding ticket to her relief. She rushes into the house and finds Trace and Rachel sitting on the couch trying to console Cara who is sitting between them, with tears slowing streaking her cheek.

When Alyssa comes over and chooses to sit on the coffee table in front of them, Cara looks up at her with such great sorrow in her eyes that Alyssa almost started crying herself. "I'm so sorry, Alyssa. You must hate me for talking about you and Olivia like I did. I had no reason to say those things and I hurt so many people." Her tears start to pick up pace once again.

Alyssa leans forward and places one of her hands on Cara's knee in comfort and to show that there are no hard feelings towards her. "You were upset, and I understand needing to get things off your chest. I didn't take it personal."

"But thats the thing," Cara bolts up, now leaning towards Alyssa leaving only about a foot of space between them. "I don't know what came over me. I was upset, but I wasn't that furious. Its like I had no control over what I was feeling or what I was saying. I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, I really did, but its like I couldn't shake the anger I was feeling. I could get rid of it until after they left." Cara leaned back into the couch as she went back to studying her hands with great interest.

Alyssa didn't reply. She has a terrible feeling about something, and she's determined to figure out what is causing it. "So, we find Olivia on the floor after blacking out sometime during the night, when she comes to she's disoriented and acting strange. Then you become out-of-control furious with her and throw something at her as Justin comes running. After all the things that were said, he feels terrible for Olivia and decides to take her home, at which time you have calmed down." Alyssa summarizes the morning as the others nod in affirmation. "Then when they arrive back at our apartment, Justin mentions getting me to help figure out what is wrong with her powers, and she insists that nothing is wrong and that I don't need to do anything. She was quite focused on getting Justin alone. At first he doesn't go along with it and then out of nowhere he was practically jumping her bones at which time I decided it was time to get out of there." This new information bothers the whole group.

"Are you convinced that she may be using her powers on us now?" Rachel asks Trace.

"I know that the evidence would lead us to think that, but I can't help but believe her when she told us that she would never do that unless the situation called for it and we told her it was okay. Doing it to make Cara look like a bitch and to get Justin to sleep with her doesn't sound like situations that 'call for it'." Trace stands up from the couch. "I think I'm going to go outside and clean up the yard from last night. If you find anything let me know." Trace leaves the room and loudly shuts the back door upon his exit.

"That was...you know, I'm not sure what that was." Rachel says. 

"He really likes Olivia. He believes he's been in love with her since the first day." Cara mumbles as she throws her head back to look up at the ceiling.

"What?!" Alyssa cannot believe her ears. "Why didn't he say anything? I had no idea. With the whole hitting on every girl and sleeping with half of them, I guess the message got lost somewhere." She jokes and Rachel joins in her laughter but Cara gives them a look that makes it come to a halt.

"Did you ever think that just maybe he doesn't really sleep with them. Its all apart of your assumptions, and that he hasn't said anything because he thinks Justin and Olivia are meant to be together and fears the rejection that comes along with that." Cara tells them.

"Thats quite profound." Rachel raises her eyebrows.

"Which apparently you believe I am incapable of being. I think I'm going to go help Trace." She gets up and follows the path that Trace had just previous taken.

"How did we go from being the good guys to the bad guys in like ten seconds flat?" Rachel asks still staring at the doorway where her two closest friends just exited.

"I don't know but it all started with Olivia blacking out on us, so I say we start there." Alyssa suggests. "I say we make a list of anything and everything that has been off with her before all of this and add whatever has happened after."

The two agree and start the list off with Olivia being extremely overworked by all of them, which doesn't help in the guilt department. Justin had mentioned that she had told him more than once that her powers were off just because she was tired, which brings them to the next issue, her powers. She has let Justin overpower her several times, and in the last few sessions that they watched, she seemed distracted. She didn't seem to be blocking out everyone like she had been. Then there was earlier that day where she seemed genuinely shocked about being able to read minds. She appeared to be clingy to Justin, and she wasn't so willing to stand up for herself much less try to explain anything to calm the situation. They assume, without hard evidence according to Trace, that she manipulated both Cara and Justin's moods. 

"I just don't get what this could all mean. It just sounds to me like she gets cranky when she's sleepy and is taking it out on us through our emotions." Rachel concludes.

"There has to be more," Alyssa has gone through all three of her books and has not found anything that would even hint as to what could be going on with Olivia.

The two started going over the list again as the front door opened and shortly after they hear it close back, Justin appears. He looks a little confused and distracted.

"Hey cuz, what's up with you?" Rachel asks as he falls back onto the couch beside her.

"I think I just made a big mistake." 

This answer causes the girls to stop what they are doing. "Please tell me you didn't." Rachel pleads and he gives her a questioning look. "Please tell me you didn't have sex with Olivia. Don't get me wrong, I love the girl and I've been rooting for you two to hook up for a while but she is vulnerable right now."

"I didn't have sex with her, and what do you mean vulnerable?" Justin sits up a bit more so he could listen to what the girls had to say. 

"Well, we, Alyssa and I, have thought about what's been going on for the last couple of days and we think something is seriously wrong with Olivia. And what exactly did you do with Olivia?" Rachel squints her eyes as she studies her cousin, telling him not to lie to her.

"Well, I was planning on helping her with her powers, kind of like a favor for her doing the same for me. She seems to be having a harder time blocking out people and its giving her a headache. One minute I'm suggesting we sit down in the living room to start, and the next I am carrying her to the bedroom and ripping her clothes off." Justin growls in frustration as he leans forward and places his head in his hands. "We almost went through with it, but..." he trails off. He isn't sure if he should share the last part.

"But? Come on, Justin, if something is wrong with her, we need to know everything so we can help her. We all care deeply about her and don't want to see anything happen."

"Its just, I thought I heard her whisper for me to stop a couple of times, but every time I pulled away she would give me a weird confused look and swear she didn't say anything. So apparently now I have my own Jiminy Crickey whispering to me, but sounds like Olivia." Justin tells them, half expecting them to laugh at him, but instead they look at him with concern. "What's going on? Are we all going crazy? I mean first Cara goes crazy insane with anger, I just Olivia and start to hear voices, and who knows what else is going on."

"I honestly think this is all connected to Olivia. I hate to say it but I really do." Alyssa finally gives up on her search and closes the book. "If you want my opinion, I think there's one person that could maybe, possibly, help us but you may not like it." She moves over more to sit in front of Justin, grabbing his hands and making him look up at her.

"If you think it will help clear things up, and hopefully get Olivia back to full health, or fix whatever is wrong with her, I'm willing to do it." Justin tells her.

"I really think you need to go to your mom." Justin jerks his hands away from Alyssa and sits all the way back into the couch as if to get as far away from Alyssa as he can. "Justin, please listen to me. I know your mom hates Olivia and is not happy with your choice to befriend her, and I know you are not happy with your mom's feelings and opinions on her, but you have to understand that your mom has had a tough life because of Olivia. I realize that my sister may have changed but that doesn't change her past and it doesn't change your mom's memories. We know that Olivia is good now, but it may take your mom a bit longer to accept." Alyssa tries to get him to see both sides. "Olivia understands where your mom is coming from and harbors no hard feelings towards her for them. In fact, I believe Olivia said that your mom had a right to feel that way, but here's the deal. Your mom is the only person I know that is completely demon....so I guess the 'person' description is a little off." Alyssa makes a face at her own distraction, but is brought back when Justin coughs really loud and moves to lean towards her again to show he is willing to listen. "You mom lived around demons. It was natural for them. She may not have known Olivia personally or chosen to live that lifestyle but I'm sure she's heard of that family. Clearly they were well-known among other demons. Just maybe she might know what may be causing this, and maybe its not just specific to Olivia but to all demons and it has a simple solution. You need to talk to her, for us, for Olivia." 

Justin cannot make himself look away from the sad pleading eyes of the girl sitting in front of him. He sighs in defeat and agrees to do so, but tells Alyssa she has to come with him. "How about we do some research first, and then after we've gained a little insight of our own, we'll go talk to my mom?

"Justin," Rachel turns to her cousin, "when was the last time you talked to your mom? You two were so close. You cant let all of this come between you." She ties to talk to him about it. "Like Alyssa pointed out, Olivia even told said that your mother has a right to be bitter. Maybe after some time, she'll be able to move on, obviously not become best friends with her, but at least accept the fact that Olivia is apart of our lives, your life. Just talk to her, get things back to the way they were."

"I'll consider it." Justin jumps up to signal his end in the conversation. "What do you say to us going to get the other two and checking out this shop that Alyssa knows about? Where are the other two anyway?"

"Outside, cleaning." Rachel shrugs but Justin's eyes widen as he laughs at the thought.

"Trace? Cleaning? I had to threaten him just to get him to come over this morning to 'help' and now he's out there on his own?" This his face contorts to suspicion. "What did you do?" He asks Rachel.

"We didn't do anything..." she wrinkles her face and gives a guilty look. "We may have suggested that Olivia is manipulating us, that she's the reason Cara went all crazy this morning and then there's you." She wiggles her eyebrows with a smirk. "He wasn't not willing to listen to he went out there and Cara joined him."

"You, Rachel, never cease to amaze me. You never thought that maybe he would be a little hurt with what may have happened between me and Olivia and then you accusing her of pretty much still being evil?" Justin shakes his head at his cousin who is now bowing her head in shame and guilt. "That's another issue. Let's go get them and get this research started. If there is something going on with Olivia, I want to know what. I personally hope she's just in need of a real long nap."

***

Back at the apartment, it takes Olivia a few minutes to process the fact that Justin just walked out.She growls in frustration as she stomps around, grabbing clothes and heading to the bathroom for a steamy hot shower. It probably should be a cold one, but she's just not feeling that one.

Its not long before she climbs out hot and still furious with the mornings events.

"What does a girl have to do to get some around here?" She starts talking to herself. "I mean, seriously, how much longer do I have to keep up this nice girl act? Its not fair. I have all these powers and yet I can't seem to get what I want." She continues to think out loud since no one is in the apartment to listen to her. "I thought boys dug the freaky bad girl, but of course Justin has to be the one guy that wants a nice one. I just don't get it. I get Cara to go off the deep end, pissing everyone, especially Justin, off and then I get Justin back here alone and he starts freaking out  about voices in his head." She growls again, frustrated that she has no one to hit.

"I need to get a handle on these powers. Maybe that's what the issue is. I just need to breathe as Justin suggested, take me a nap to rest, and then I'll be at full strength again. Then I can get whatever I want." Her smile would send goosebumps down anyone's spine if they were to walk in at that moment. "I just need to stick around here and work on control and then the others will come running to me. They just can't resist me. This is going to be fun!"

The smell of dust is overpowering. The shop has the distinctive smell of storage like winter clothes when brought out for the first time. It's lit by the little bit of sunlight that comes through the street front window and the small lamp that is connected to the long table that is covered with open books spread out from one end to the other. Books that are supposed to be bought before they are read, but after a lot of begging and pleading and an explanation of why they were there, he finally agrees to let them do their research with a promise they will buy something before they leave.

People come in and out of the shop, usually to buy something like a scented candle or incense. A few buy a book or some kind of magical item. The visits are a quick in and out. They all new the basics of why they were there and where it would be.

The group, minus Olivia, has come to see if the small unique shop has any information on their friend. Justin and Alyssa both have several books in front of them as they scan them all, looking for anything that looks helpful. Rachel has taken it upon herself to explore the shop, looking over the book titles got boring for her so she quickly moved onto things that smell funny and things that are in a jar. Trace and Cara are still in a pouting mode on top of the bored mode, so they have been on a break for the past hour of the two they have been there. Utilizing the time with sighs of boredom, tapping obnoxious beats out with their pencils until they received mean glares from the other two at the table and now they are just sitting there staring out into space.

"Ok, I'm bored of all of this wonderful research." Trace speaks out with sarcasm. "I believe I'm going to go for some food. Anyone want to join me?" Neither Justin nor Alyssa respond as they continue to flip through their books. "Alrighty then. Cara, you up for some food?" He asks his partner in boredom.

She glances over at the other end of the table and sees that there's pretty much no chance of getting much attention and even less chance of something fun happening anytime soon. She turns back to Trace and nods. "I'm in." She jumps up and the couple leave.

Justin finally looks up. "Finding anything?"

Alyssa groans as she slams the book shut that she was looking through. "No. I have found nothing pertaining to the way Olivia is acting. All my books are just going into great details of sacrifices that are made and rituals that are performed. Maybe its just so simple that its not going to be in any of these books."

"Yeah, maybe its just--"

"Oh crap!" Rachel yells out, cutting Justin off. The two at the table whip around to see what caused their friend to yell out. "Check this out!" She holds up a jar that has something floating around in it. "They really do have rat eyes." She is so enthralled with the jar in her hands she misses the eyes rolling. She just looks at them for a few seconds longer and then goes onto the next jar.

"Well how about we put these back up and find some things I could use for some spells and potions, not the rat eyes, and get back home." Alyssa suggests, standing up as she closes the books in front of her, and starts stacking them up. 

Justin agrees by following her actions. They get the books back on the shelves and try to get Rachel away from the 'fun things' so they can get out. They grab some herbs and spices and a couple of chicken feet for Rachel. Just as they head out the door, the shopkeeper yells out to them, bringing the four to an abrupt halt. They turn to see the man walking over to them, holding a book out to them. 

"This is from my private collection. It could help you."

"Why didn't you feel the need to give this to us before the wasted hours of research that ended with nothing?" Justin asks, his frustration apparent in his voice.

"Justin." Alyssa reaches up to grab his arm, trying to calm him.

"I wasn't sure how much you really wanted to help her out, but this book will help." The man hands the book over to Alyssa. "The problem is inside, the solution is not as easy." 

Justin looks at the man with confusion. "Could you be a little more cryptic with that answer?" He asks with sarcasm.

The man just shrugs and turns away from them and walks back to the back of the store leaving the three with the mysterious book.

"Well I guess we can go back to your place and have a look at it, and see what we find. Apparently this is the book we need and we'll find what we are looking for 'inside'."Alyssa says rolling her eyes and turning back around to leave the store,actually getting out this time.

"Let's get the other two and go home then." Rachel says as she leads the way to the car.

***

"This is riduclous!" Olivia groans to herself as she stands up from the couch and starts pacing around the apartment. "I'm so fucking bored. Where is Alyssa? Better yet, where is Justin? 

She had tried taking a nap but it didn't work, her head was pounding too hard. She then decided to work on her breathing exercises like Justin had suggested. Her head had eased up a little, so she tried to find something to do around the apartment. She tried entertaining herself with the TV and video games. but there was nothing interesting on TV and she didn't understand most of the games. Her boredom grew even more with being cooped up in the apartment. With her head feeling better and being able to control it a little with her breathing, she attempted to take on the outside world.

At first the voices were overwhelming, but she continued to do as Justin suggested and breathe deeply when it felt like her head would explode. She finally got to the point where the voices were still there but it was like a whisper in the background. She would need a bit more time, but she was sure it would be back in control soon.

This news excited her, so when she made it back to the apartment she had been hoping Alyssa was back or Justin had come back to check on her. She considered calling them but realized that she must have left her cell phone at Justin's or something because it was nowhere to be found.

She stops pacing and lets out a yell of frustration. "I'm so over this!" She growls. "I'm Olivia Haywood for fuck sake. There has to be something I can do to entertain myself without drawing too much attention to myself."

She stands up and decides to go back out. She is determined to find something to do to pass the time. One never knows who or what she will run into, what kind of fun adventures are to be had.

***

Trace and Cara turned down the offer to go back to Justin's. They both went back to their own places to sulk over the day's events. Rachel goes back to the guesthouse to sleep off more of her hangover after receiving a promise from Justin that if they find anything important, they come get her.

Justin and Alyssa sit on the couch with the book on the coffee table in front of them. "What do you think he meant by 'the problem is inside'?" Alyssa asks with a worried look.

"I don't know but I do know that we will figure it out and we will do something even if I have to knock the girl out myself to get it done." He teases, bringing a smile to Alyssa's face.

"Well lets see what we got here." She says leaning forwards with Justin following suit. 

They both lean over the book as she opens it. As they turn from page to page, they start to get frustrated because most of it is in some crazy language they did not understand.

"What the hell is this shit?!" Justin slams his fist down on table, making Alyssa almost jump out of her skin.

She continues to flip through, and the eventually starts to look familiar. There were pictures of spiny demons, slimey demons, and even spiny slimy demons. There were passages about demons that ate babies, demons that love to burn their victims alive, and demons that use their tentacle things to choke and kill their prey.

"I don't see what this has to do with Olivia. How will we ever find what we need to know?" Justin huffs as they flip page  after page.. His frustration and worry are clear in his face as if someone had tattooed it across his forehead.

"I'm going to say this has something to do with her," Alyssa stops her movement as she comes across a page that has a drawing that looks a lot like Olivia. "It says here that her real name was actually Athanasia. She changed her name to Olivia in the late 1800's. The name did not draw much attention. She earned her reputation by killing ruthlessly. Her parents are pretty much at the top of the food chain where demons are concerned. She and her brother were definitely children they were proud of. They tortured and killed just for the sake of it, and a lot of the time just because they wanted something they didn't have." She summarizes as she reads.

Justin listens but doesn't want to read the details. He already knows most of this through many conversations with Olivia. 

"It talks about their powers to manipulate and some of their powers they gained by taking them from others. It hasn't been updated in a while, definitely not since she decided not to kill anymore." Alyssa flips through more pages to see if she can find some more information that they don't already know.

Its quiet for awhile before Justin stops Alyssa's hand. "What's this?" He points to a unique looking arrow.

"Well, it says that this is a special arrow designed to kill demons like Olivia. She told me that they were blessed or sprinkled with magic dust or something that gives them makes them like poison to them." She explains. "For humans, its just a mere arrow that can kill by piercing the heart, but for Olivia its like a syringe full of poison. Once it pierces her skin, it reacts with her blood. The closer it is to the heart, the faster it works. "

Justin doesn't reply to this as he lets it all sink in. He flips the pages and the next several of them are just potion recipes and spells. "This isn't helping!" Justin yells out. "I already know this stuff about her. She was evil. I get it, now where are the pages that say she's good and how to help her? Where is the spell that restores her? How do I help her if this book won't tell me. I thought the old man said the answer was in here! Then where is it?!" He is now up off the couch and pacing the living room floor.

"Justin, please just calm down. The girl is not dead nor is she dying. We will figure this out." Alyssa says in a soothing voice, which helps at least slow Justin's pace down. "Let's go talk to your mom. Maybe she'll be able to help us know just what it is we are looking for and then we'll see it in here."

Justin makes a couple more paths across the floor before stopping in front of her. "Fine, let's go." He makes his way straight to the front door, opening it with an expecting look on his face as he waits for Alyssa to join him.

"Shouldn't we go get Rachel? We did promise her."

"No, we promised we'd get her if we found anything. We haven't so therefore I'm not waking her up. I prefer to do this without the crazy fanatic in there." He says as he holds his truck door open for her and then goes around to get in himself.

The ride is a quiet one. Justin is thinking about what he is going to ask her and how he'll be able to keep his mom from refusing to help out, since it is for Olivia. He can't help but wish that Alyssa may be right that there's a chance that over time, she'll learn to accept Olivia. Alyssa is trying to figure out how this whole conversation will go with Justin's mom. She clearly despises Olivia and here they were coming to her for help with the same girl. 

They pull into the driveway and find his mom sitting on her front porch where she is drinking what looks like lemonade and enjoying the nice weather outside. She stands up when she sees the truck pull in, and Alyssa can see the hopeful look in her eyes. Will that disappear when she hears why they have come? She hops out of the truck and meets Justin in the front so they could walk together.

Alyssa could tell that his mom is happy to see Justin and even more happy to see him there without someone other than Olivia. Justin has moved on and has come back to tell him mother so and tao apologize for before. This may turn out to be harder than she thought.

Lynn runs over and grabs her son to pull him into a tight hug and tells him how much she missed him coming around.

"Where's dad?" is all Justin says after pulling away.

The heartbreak is clear; she had been wishing for him to come back in a more forgiving mood. "He had to go out of town for business. Who's your friend?"

Justin grabs Alyssa by the arm to coax her forward. "Alyssa this is my mom, Lynn. Mom this is my friend, Alyssa. She is Olivia's half-sister." Lynn had been reaching out to shake her hand but stops when she hears Olivia's name.

"Half-sister?" Lynn is shocked to hear there are more of that family hanging around her son.

Before Justin replies, Alyssa reaches her own hand out and shakes hers. "Its nice to meet you, Lynn."

Lynn returns the gesture with a simple nod. She offers them both lemonade as she sits back down in the chair that she had recently vacated to meet her son. They both take some as a sign of peace. They really need to her to be willing to open up to them and share what she may know about the demon world. Lynn watches Alyssa closely, weary of her because of her ties the family that she has hated for so long. 

"Mom, I'm going to be honest with you. I didn't want to come here, but Alyssa has convinced me that you may be the only one that can help us understand some things," Justin starts out, trying to get to the point and make sure that things will stay on point, "neither one of us has lived in some demon world where they roam so freely, and neither one of us is aware of how demons vary from the rest of us. Olivia is...well something appears to be off with her and we were hoping you could help us figure it out."

Lynn rolls her eyes as she laughs humorlessly at her son. "Her lack of a moral code comes to mind. That's where I would start. " She answers simply but Justin's pointed glare makes her sit up straighter.

"Mom, I'm serious. Please don't make this person right now and don't make me regret coming to you about this." Justin tells her. "I did not come here today to convince you that she is a good person or that you should forgive her. You have to come to those terms on your own, but I did come seeking your help in keeping her good."

The last statement catches her attention. "What do you mean by 'keeping her good'? What has she done?"

"She hasn't really done anything that we can prove." Justin starts but realizes it may not be the best way to go. "She's just acting differently, not herself." Justin doesn't want to go into too much detail in fear that he may hear an I-told-you-so chant.

"Please, ma'am. She's the only family I have here and she's the only one that can help me with my own newfound abilities." Alyssa pleads on her own behalf.

Lynn looks over at her and squints her eyes for a seconds. "You must come from her dad."

Alyssa is confused as to the point of this statement, or how she would even assume that. "um...I don't...if you mean the demon in me comes from Olivia's...our father, then yes, you are correct."

"I knew it! He was always so much more compassionate than her mother. That woman had no use for anyone that did not giver her exactly what she wanted and humans always fell in that category. Olivia is...was a lot like her," She adds the last statement for her own person jab, correcting it a bit for their sake. "Humans are powerless in their eyes and therefore pointless. Olivia's father was different. Don't get me wrong, he enjoys killing just like the others and enjoys the power just as much, but he usually left the 'powerless' ones alone. No use to him so no use in wasting time killing them. He usually didn't kill others just for the hell of it though. He always had a reason; granted it may not have been a good one, but a reason nonetheless." Lynn tells her. "You would never have come from the mother. She would never have fathom the thought of breeding with a human, and if she had somehow done so, you definitely would not have lived to be proof. I just can't believe he had the guts to do so himself. She must not know about you are you would be dead and he would have found death something he wished for many times over. She must being losing her control, over him at least. "The look in Lynn's eyes portrayed so many feelings: pain, interest, honesty, sympathy, and almost a little pleasure at the end.

"Mom!" Justin interrupts, seeing the uneasiness in Alyssa's face, but also to get back on the point of their visit. "We are not here for that. Is there something that can make a demon weak? Its almost like she's got the flu or something. She's weak, her reflexes are slower, and she seems to be having a hard time controlling her own powers." 

Lynn chuckles a little. "No. We don't get common ailments like humans do. If we were to somehow contract something like their flu virus, our bodies would quickly burn it out before it had the chance to even think about attacking our body. Our body temperature, at its normal state, is much higher than that of a normal human. Its like sweating out a fever. Its just much easier for us and happens without us realizing it. Immune system's real real good for us. "Lynn explains with a smile.

"There are any sicknesses for demons then? Nothing that would explain the way she's been acting and feeling?" Alyssa asks.

"Not that are contracted through normal circumstances like through a cough or something like not washing your hands. Ours most commonly develop through spells and potions." Justin nods at this, thinking about the arrow that Alyssa had told him about. "What makes you think she's not feeling well? You don't think that she's faking anything?"

"She's just not acting like herself, and I believe she's not faking this. She claims that she's just a little tired, but its just weird. We've been training and she seems weaker in the physical contacts training and when we are using our actually powers, she's slower to react. I've been able to get a few good bolts in here recently."

"You're able to fight and overpower her?" Lynn's face lights up with great pride.

"Not the time." Justin fires back.

Her face is still lit up a bit, but she does move on. "I can't honestly tell you for sure what it could be. Has she been cut recently? Maybe someone could have used a little mojo with a knife and poisoned her that way."

Alyssa looks over at Justin, knowing that as of recently he's the one that has seen the most skin on Olivia.  He clears his throat as his face reddens with embarrassment before answering. "um, no. She has no marks on her that would result in a cut of any kind."

Lynn's eyes widen with this. "Are you sleeping with her?!" Her pride has now been replaced with complete disgust and disappointment.

"Not that its any of your business, but no I am not sleeping with her and I wish everyone would not jump to that conclusion."

"The only thing I can think of that would cause her to be weak is that she may be overworking herself. Though it is true that demons can go without sleep for a good long while, if she's missing sleep and overworking at the same time, she could be draining herself of energy and therefore making herself weak and vulnerable to anything." Lynn tells them as Justin and Alyssa share of similar look of guilt, knowing it was mostly theirs and the others in the group fault that she was doing so much. 

"What happens if she loses all of her energy?" Alyssa fears the answer but knows she needs to hear it.

"I'm not exactly sure. I've never seen a demon push itself beyond the limit, but I've heard rumors when I was little. I used to hide in the hallway while my parents would talk about some of the demons that were on the run from Olivia and her brother." Lynn starts and knows that she needs to get to the point quickly before Justin yells at her again. "There was one man that refused to sleep in fear of capture and would run and hide as much as he could. He became so weak that I'd say a simple 5-year-old human child would have been able to take him down. It was very easy for them to track him after a little time and even easier to kill him, especially since he had no control over his powers anymore. I believe he had a similar power to ours, some offensive fire power type. He couldn't control it at all when he needed to. He would fire without meaning to and even when he did, he couldn't control where it would go. It was practically suicide for him." Lynn tells them.

"What about Olivia though?" Justin asks. "I know that she has some fire power locked away somewhere, but her main powers deal with her mind. What will happen if she loses control of these?"

"I assume she'll go insane." The answer sounds so simple, and it bothered them the most. "I've heard how these powers turn on a demon and its not pretty. She won't be able to control her emotions or others. It'll get to the point to where she won't be able to tell the difference between her own emotions and the emotions of those around her. She may even start projecting emotions onto others that she's feeling, her own or someone else's that are going through her. Thoughts will become so overwhelming that she won't know what to do. She won't be able to block them out. Anyone that comes anywhere near her will enter into her thoughts, screaming out in her head. She'll start to go crazy. She won't die from it but she'll wish she would because people's thoughts are not always positive ones. You won't even be able to handle being around her. It'll get to the point where she'll want to kill herself just to make the voices stop, and with her powers she will probably try."

Alyssa's eyes close tightly as she tries to get rid of the images in her head. She does not want to even consider Olivia being in that state of mind. She's too strong for that.

"What can we do?" Justin is sick to his stomach at the images playing in his own head.

"There's a potion mix that you'll have to get her to take, and when she does you'll also have to say a spell. I don't know the recipe or the spell, but I do know that if you wait too long, it'll be too late. Once she gets too far into the insanity, she can't be pulled back."

Justin nods and stands up to leave. If they have a limited time, then he wishes to get started on it right away. He helps Alyssa stand when he sees her still struggling over what his mom just told them. He puts his arm around her and helps her walk back to the truck. He helps her in, but he doesn't get in himself yet.

He goes back to his mom who is still standing on her porch. He walks over to her and without a word he pulls her into a hug. After a short but tight embrace, he whispers a thanks in her ear which causes her eyes to tear up.

"Justin," she grabs his arm when he turns to walk away, "when she starts to break down, she may appear as if she's getting better. The thoughts aren't as loud as they were before, and she'll feel like she's back in control. That's just the calm before the storm. I hope if this is really the problem, that you are able to help in time."

"Thanks, mom. You've done a lot. I'll be back." He promises. He moves away but stops again. "What if this isn't the problem? Will this make it worse?" The fear hurt. What if they only made her problems worse than what they are, and in result make it to where they can't help her.

"If this isn't the problem, then the spell won't hurt her. It may help keep her around long enough for you to figure out what the problem is though." She reassures him with a smile.

He nods, a little more confident with the whole situation. He joins Alyssa in the truck and drives them back to the house. He'll get Rachel and they will find this spell and this potion that they need and they will help their friend. It's the least he can do since all of this is their fault. They asked too much of her and she was so willing to help out that she put her own health and sanity last. 

Days have come and gone, bordering on a week, since Justin and Alyssa talked to Lynn. They had gone back to Justin's to give the book another go through. Now that they knew what they were looking for, a spell and potion, something might come up. Lucky for them, it wasn't in some foreign language written in symbols or something. It appeared to be fairly simple, but obviously looks can be deceiving. They tried to mix the ingredients for the potion several times and ended up with failed attempts, some blowing up in the faces, literally. This would be why all potion mixing and spell making has been moved to the outdoors. 

For the first few days, they would continue to work on getting it right as they took turns watching over Olivia. Olivia, on the other hand, was getting extremely annoyed with this. They weren't as stealthy as they thought, not to mention she could read their minds. She  could tell they were up to something dealing with magic. The details were a little fuzzy since they all went out of their way to try not to think about it when around her, only increasing her suspicions. She considered tying them up and beating the truth out of them, but then figured that would be seen as too extreme.

Finally Trace got annoyed with everything. "Don't you think we should let her in on what we are doing? I mean it does affect her. She is the one that has to drink whatever it is you are attempting to brew and everything."

"We just want to make sure we have everything right. She be more willing to work with us on this if we show her it will work." Rachel points out.

"Ever think that she may be the one that  can help. She may be able to help get all your ingredients right and whatever else needs to be done." Trace argues. "We're all trying to do everything we can to keep her from knowing, yet we tend to forget she can read us like a  children's book with really big pictures. She's not stupid. She knows we are up to something, and very well may know what it is already and is just waiting for us to come clean. Ever think that there's a chance that all of this deception may ruin the trust she has for us?"

The others were quiet as they took in Trace's words. Justin is the first to speak up. "You're right. We should have told her. Why don't you all continue with this, and I'll go talk to her? That way if she gets mad and decided to take it out on us, I'll be able to handle a little more of her punch than one of you." Justin cringes at the thought. 

They all agree, except Trace is a little pissed because he knows that Justin will be the one getting the credit for being the honest one instead of him. 

Contrary to Trace's thoughts though, the talk with Olivia went rather well and Justin did give Trace the credit. She had been annoyed that they would try to hide something from her, and didn't want to help with the spell because it could be dangerous for everyone. It was hard but Justin finally convinced her by telling her that it would help everyone in the long run if it kept her in control and out of the looney bin. 

Arriving at Justin's, Olivia gives Trace a hug for talking to the others into coming clean. Not surprising enough though, it isn't long before she has mapped out how the spell would work and what was going wrong with the potion. They were putting the ingredients into the mix in the wrong order. Who knew the order mattered?

"See, I told you she would help!" Trace exclaims as if he had won some bet the others were unaware of.

"Well, Trace, good for you. Would you like a cookie now?" 

"The sarcasm is not necessary, Rachel. Besides, a cookie would be quite nice right now, so feel free to get on with that, extra chocolate chip please." Trace shoots back, earning him the middle finger and an eye roll.

"Alright thats enough!" Justin steps in before the childish behavior got out of hand. "We have the spell, we have the potion, now we just have to put them together. Any particular way this has to go other than 'you drink, we speak'?"

"Just what the book says. You need to say the first of the spell as I'm drinking and the last of the spell after I've taken it all. I say lets get this started and over with. I don't think I can take all of your crazy thoughts and overflowing emotions much longer." Olivia tells him, as she made sure they all stood in a circle, holding a candle and some kind of spice item they had bought, and Alyssa has the book ready to start.

The spell itself only  takes about five minutes to complete. The group though stood by watching to see if they could tell it worked. They were half expecting there to be a show of lights of flashes or something to let them know. Olivia stood in the center of the circle, everyone watching, staring, to see if she does anything. She remains perfectly still as if she were a statue. No one wanted to breathe in fear that it would cause some bad chain reaction like cause Olivia to fall over and crumble to pieces.

Though it is only a mere fifteen minutes, it seems like a lifetime before Olivia makes any movements. She shakes a little as if something has come over her and she's trying to shake loose. Her head drops and then she's still again.

"Olivia?" Alyssa calls out, more and more worried as the seconds pass by.

Olivia moves her head from side to side as if she were trying to pop her neck, and then moves it in a circular motion to loosen up the muscles. Alyssa calls her name out again, hoping to get a response this time. The group remains still as they watch Olivia moving to pop knuckles and bones and to loosen up muscles. She pulls her hands up to look at them as if she hasn't seen them in a while, turning them over several times. Finally she lifts her head a bit, not all the way, but does look up at Alyssa. This makes her uncomfortable. 

"Olivia? Are you okay?"

She finally nods and then goes back to looking at her hands. "Olivia. That's right. I'm Olivia, and my head is not going to explode." Her statements were so simple but weird.

"So, you feel better? Does that mean the spell worked?" Rachel asks smiling.

Olivia finally lifts her head up completely, turning around to look at everyone surrounding her. "I feel wonderful. I'm back in control, thanks to you all."

"We're glad to help. What do you say we get back inside and just chill? There will be nothing done that will require much if any energy at all." Justin suggests with a smile as he walks over to Olivia and hugs her tight.

The group agrees and makes their way into the living room to sit wherever they find comfortable and Justin starts up a movie. Alyssa smiles with relief, knowing that they were able to help Olivia. She looks over at her sister and see that she looking over at Cara and Trace with a weird look on her face.

"Something wrong, Olivia?" She asks.

Olivia smiles and shakes her head. "No, nothing's wrong. Just thinking and wondering about a few things."

"What's on your mind?" Justin sits back down beside her.

"I'm just curious about some things." She starts as she still continues to look at Cara and Trace, making them extremely uncomfortable, but she does look away a couple of times to look over at Alyssa and Rachel. "How is it that you all have not killed each other yet?"

The question catches everyone a little off guard. "Excuse me? What is that suppose to mean?" Cara asks defensively.

"Hey, don't get all defensive on me. You wanted to know, and I told you. I can explain more." Olivia stands up and starts to walk around to stand behind the couch that she had previously been sitting on, now able to see everyone easily. "You, Cara, have been in love with our boy wonder, Justin, here for forever now" She runs her fingers over Justin's head, "yet you make a point not to go after him. Then I come along, and you want to play Ms. Jealousy and hate me for gaining his attention so quickly. It kills you to think that if I wanted him, I could have him." 

"Olivia! What the hell?!" Alyssa yells out, seeing Cara holding back tears.

"And Trace, you have been attracted to me since day one. You can't help but find yourself drawn to me. I'm some badass chick thats able to fight and kill anyone I come across. You fear me, yet you want to have your way with me." She smirks as she looks over at Trace's now extremely red face. "You never approached me though. In fact, instead you did the opposite. You hit on every other girl that came around." She shakes her head at him, making a 'tsk' noise, as if she were scolding a child. "It must kill you to know that Justin had his chance with me, and then turned it down. He got to see parts of me that you only see in your dreams. Ever hate him for being the super-being that he is? Of course you do." She winks at him.

"Justin, Justin, Justin," she continues to rub his head as she smirks. The others are watching him with a little shock and feelings of betrayal as he just sits there without standing up and defending his friends' honor. She bends down over the back of the couch so her lips are barely touching his ears. "You, on the other hand, have seen me as only a friend, a confidant in a way. Deep down you know you want me though, you just fight it because it would be wrong." She looks over at Trace and Cara and she leans a little more and licks his jaw just under his ear and then bites his ear lobe. Justin's eyes close as a wave of desire rushes over him.

"Justin, what is wrong with you?!" Rachel says through her clenched teeth. "Don't you think this is a little rude and uncalled for?"

"Aw, my Justin, here loves it." Olivia walks back around and sits on his lap as his arms wrap around her waist. "If I want him to love it, he will."

"That's dirty." Alyssa is pissed.

The evil smirk on her face tells the others that she does not care at all what they think. "Fine, if you think its unfair for me to take Justin, then what about you, Cara?" Olivia rolls off of Justin's lap, but he leans over and starts kissing on her neck. "What would you like?" She asks but Cara doesn't answer. She just closes her eyes tightly so she doesn't have to watch Justin like this. "Would you prefer him to be in love with you? I can make him lust after you. I'll never tell you how he truly felt about you before, but you'll have him loving you and showering you praises for the rest of your lives. Is that what you want?" Olivia asks and then turns her head to whisper something to Justin. 

The next thing everyone sees is that Justin jerks away from Olivia as if she had poked him with a hot iron. He stands up quickly and then approaches Cara and kneels down on the floor in front of where she is sitting. "Oh, Cara, I'm so sorry. I don't know what got into me. I've loved you for so long, and I was so stupid to ever let you go. Please take me back. I want to hold you in my arms, tell you how much I love you, and then make love to you all night." Cara's eyes widen in shock but then immediately fill with tears of pain. She's wanted to hear this for so long and now he's only doing so because of some stupid power is forcing him to.

"Stop this, please," she she begs Olivia as tears fall down her cheeks. Justin wipes them away and leans up to kiss her cheeks, trying to sooth her. "Please stop," her sobs are borderline hysterical.

"Stop this now!!" Rachel demands, tears in her own eyes for her friend. "Why are you doing this?"

"Isn't this what you all wanted? Me back to normal, in control. Cara should be ecstatic. She's getting what she wants, Justin." She shrugs nonchalantly. "Alyssa you should be thrilled. You have learned the magics quickly. Granted you couldn't figure out a simple energy potion, but hey practice makes perfect right?" Her laugh sent chills down everyone's spine. "What's wrong? You starting to realize that maybe I was wrong about you. You are cut out for this magic crap. You just wish. Speaking of wishing..." Olivia has now stood up and moved to in front of Rachel.

She stands right in front of her, looking down at her, seeing the fear in her eyes. By this time, Olivia has stopped her manipulation over Justin. He seems to be in a faze over what he had just done, but is trying to shake himself out of it as he tries to console his sobbing friend. He did watch Olivia closely, making sure she did nothing to physically hurt his friends as he tries to figure a way to get her to stop mentally torturing them.

"You, Rachel, have kept me amused." Olivia states with a big smile. "All of your excited interest in our kind. You are always thrilled to hear about a new power or ability and can't wait to see it in action. You were so nice to me and so quick to take me in, almost impatient to hear what I can do. I believe there was a touch of jealousy when you found out that Alyssa has a bit of demon strength in her and then the whole witch thing. You must hate that." Olivia leans down to be eye level with her and places her hands on both arms of the chair that Rachel is sitting in. "You wish you could be like us so bad. You're willing to put your life in danger. Do you think it will change things? That I'll be able to make you one of us if you say 'please' real nice?" Olivia laughs. "Well, how about we test something out." She stands back up straight. She looks around and sees a candle from earlier still lit across the room. She waves her hands towards it and the next thing anyone sees is that Olivia is holding fire in her palm. Fear increases dramatically inside of everyone, especially Rachel. "The test is this: I will use one of my powers on you, and if you survive it I'll make sure that you get a little power of your own. You game?"

Rachel's eyes grow huge and her heart races and her breath catches. She is finding it extremely hard to breathe at all as she fears for her life. As she watches Olivia toss a fire ball back and forth between her hands, she feels herself coiling up in the chair as if she could make herself disappear. Seconds pass by and Rachel doesn't move or speak, along with everyone else. Fearing that any movement could set Olivia off, therefore hurling the fire towards their friend.

Olivia moves in a blur and within a nanosecond Rachel is swept up from her chair and is not standing in front of her, an arm wrapped tightly around her shoulders, careful not to choke her too soon. 

"Well, Rachel, I do believe I need an answer," Olivia tells her in a teasing voice. "Don't you want to be one of us?" Rachel closes her eyes and tries to take a deep breath as she slowly shakes her head. "I actually have some ideas. Do you think if I bite you, I will transfer my abilities like a venom?" She moves towards her neck, but before she bites she pulls away quickly and laughs. "Nah, that probably won't work. That's one of your vampire myths. How about this?" She extinguishes the fire and hold her hand out, palm up. "Addo mihi a validus versica." After the words were spoken, a large knife appears out of nowhere. She holds it to Rachel's throat. "I can drain you of some of your blood and replace it with some of mine. No, wait! I got it. I can drain you of all of your blood. You die, and then we can have Alyssa here bring you back as a demon. What do you think about that?"

Rachel whimpers in fear. She is scared out of her mind.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't hear that. Could you speak up? You up for trying out my idea?"

"No," comes out in a quiet squeak.

Justin finally stands up and moves towards Olivia. "That's enough! I don't know what is going on, but apparently we were all wrong about you. Leave her alone!" He demands with a scary look on his face, one that would probably scare anyone, except Olivia.

Olivia, instead, chuckles. "That's so cute, Justin. You playing hero and everything. What are you going to do?"

"Leave her alone!" he demands again. He moves towards Rachel to help her out, hoping to pull her away from Olivia without getting her hurt.

Before he could make it, Olivia throws her arm up stopping his movement. "nuh, uh, uh" she says as if she talking to a small child. "Wait your turn, hero." she hits him in the chest, and Justin flies across the room and slams into the wall, leaving a large hole when he falls to the ground.

 She smiles as she turns her attention back to Rachel. "I think I'm going to want you to run a little. Its more fun when they run, plus a nice exercise, keeps my cardio agoing." She jokes as she pats her own chest in a thumping beat. "I think I want all of you to run. If you want, I can yell 'Marco' as you answer 'Polo'. I heard that was a fun game." 

Olivia turns a bit to move away from Rachel when she felt an electric current go through her. It caused her to jolt a bit. She turns back to where she had thrown Justin and there he was standing with his arms held out. She just rolls her eyes.

"You know that doesn't hurt me. I'm too powerful for that." Olivia throws her head back. "See, that's the thing. All of this power was taken for granted. Someone who is as powerful as her, should never be associated with humans and half-breeds. She had so much, yet she gave it all away because she fell in love. Then she runs away from what was the best life ever, to be on the run. She ran from everything. She was the most powerful demon ever, destined to be great, but she didn't want that. She wanted to love, love from a human." The disgust is obvious in her tone.

Justin puts his hands down some, confusion covering his face. "She?"

"Yeah. You're beloved Olivia Haywood." She answers as she looks at everyone's confused faces. "Aw, you see, I'm not Olivia. I'm actually Kalina. Your precious Olivia is gone, and I must thank you all for that. If it weren't for your running her into the ground I never would have been able to do it." She smiles evilly at them.

"What...why...how?" Trace stutters with fear.

"Your precious Olivia captured me several decades ago. She was going to kill me, but her brother thought it'd be more fun to torture me instead. I have, or had, this great power to be able to see whoever I wanted to see. If I just thought about a certain person, I could see where they were and what they were doing. It comes in handy when you are on the run, but she somehow found a way to cloak herself." She was now pacing as she watches everyone closely. "They locked me in a very small dungeon cell where I've been since then. If they ever wanted to know something from me, her brother would take great pleasure in torturing it out of me. After time, I just started giving it to them when they asked. I couldn't take the pain anymore." She shrugs as she starts swinging the knife around in her hand.

"Interesting enough, about ten years ago, I hear the most surprising news of my life. Olivia had fallen in love with a human. She was willing to give up everything for him. Even better, her brother killed him." She was ecstatic with this fact. "She never forgave him for that. Instead she turned her back on her family and ran. That's when I got the idea that I would keep an eye on her. I figured if I could switch bodies with her, I could come back as her and the family would take me in, and then I could live the life she was meant to have." She continues to explain as everyone else stay silent and completely still as they listen. "I always failed though. You see, she was too strong. I could never get control over her. Then you all became a part of her life. This is my favorite part." Her statement chills the room.

"She starts out unbelievably strong. She keeps to herself and watches over you all at night. Then came the training of Justin which wasn't too bad on her. She'd sleep during the day and then train with you in the evening as she continued to watch over everyone during the night. Then she began to want you all to see her as more normal, and most of all help Alyssa out. She really felt bad about taking so much without giving back." Kalina rolls her eyes. "She got a job. She worked during the day so she could help pay for things, and to be able to spend more time with Justin. So it was the job in the day instead of resting, training at night with doubled since everyone wanted in on it, spells with Alyssa, and then watchdog at night. She had no time to sleep, no time for rest. Her strength started to quickly crumble. She was losing control, and it was my time to take advantage of it." Kalina is so proud of herself and what she was able to do. "I was able to switch us, but the problem was I was suffering from what she had been, lack of sleep leading to lack of control, but then here you guys come along once again to help out. You cleared my head, restored my strength and energy, and now I'm what I had been hoping to be for so long." She holds her hands out wide for all to see her. "I'm Olivia Haywood."

"She'll stop this. She won't let you keep her body. If you have her powers, that means she has yours and she can see what you are doing. She will switch you all back." Alyssa tells her, hoping if she said it out loud, it would help her believe it more.

Kalina just laughs. "I do love how you humans hold so much hope in a better world, always hope for the best in everything. You want to hear the best part of all of this thought? All your hopes and wishes and everything else got me here, and got me what I want so you all just keep on hoping." She laughs loudly. "I'm going back as Olivia, I'm going to convince the family that I've come to terms with my mistakes and I understand the reason for doing what they did. I'm back and as powerful as ever. How will I prove that? I'm going to kill that pesky Kalina that's been harbored away in the dungeon. I hope you don't miss your friend too much." 

The group is unable to move, much less speak, as they watch Olivia, or really Kalina, leave quickly without another word. Their world had been turned upside down in a matter of a couple of hours. Just a few days ago they had all been worried for their friend, and just in a few hours they had lost her completely. She had been gone for a few days but they had not been aware of it. They should have known something more was going on. None of them were familiar with typical demon behavior, so none of them knew what to expect but they all still felt guilty for Olivia's disappearance and really shaken up by the events that just passed with Kalina.

They have no idea how to get the real Olivia back, but they did know they would find a way and they would get her back, and when they do there will be no more taking her for granted and no more taking advantage of her. Olivia is their friend, not their fun shiny toy that does really cool stuff. They had to get her back!

Yelling and screaming is echoed throughout the whole building and everyone is on edge. Each one wanted to kill the prisoner, but they have all been given strict instructions not to. 

"Would someone please come down here and listen to me!"

The door that leads to the cells flies open with a large crash and shakes the walls a bit. "What do you want, Kalina? We have already told you that you are not getting out and the only reason you are still alive is because the order has not been given...yet." The guardsman yells at her.

"If you would just listen to me, you would now that I am not Kalina!" She yells back. "I'm Olivia, one of those people that gives you orders. I order you to let me out. I have been here for days and you all refuse to listen to me."

"Do you think that just maybe it has something to do with the fact that you've pulled this stunt several times? We know its you, Kalina, and this is really getting old. Don't make me put a muting spell on you." The threat seems to quiet her for a moment.

With satisfaction, the guard smiles and then turns to go back out.

"Wait! Go get , Alexander! He'll know its me, and that something is up. If Kalina is out there in my body, with my powers, don't you think Alexander should know?" Olivia asks.

He pauses and slowly turns back. His smile is now a glare. "I don't care who you want us to think you are, you never refer to him by his name. You do not get to talk to him unless he wishes to talk to you. You know that batter than anyone. Now, shut your mouth before I shut it for you." The guard leaves and slams the door shut behind him.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," she groans to herself. She falls on the makeshift bed she has in the cell. "How the hell did I become Kalina." She rubs her temples trying to soothe her headache. Every time she would start to think about something or someone, pictures would start flashing through her mind. She tries to focus, keep her mind on one person at a time. She has to know that her friends are still safe. She focuses on Justin, hoping he has them al together, watching over them. "Please tell me that they know the truth. She's not me, and she's dangerous." She mumbles to herself. She sees the struggle between the group and feels herself growing furious when she sees herself holding Rachel with a knife to her throat. "I have to get out of here!" She yells out as she goes back to fight with the bars. 

She fights through the night to try to loosen or break the bars or find some kind of way out even though she is very aware of her inability to escape. She and her brother built this cage along with the others to keep anyone from getting out, including the strongest and the most powerful. 

She continues to fight, hoping she finds a weakness. She continues to yell hoping someone out there will listen to her. How did she go from the one everyone fears to cross to the one that everyone laughs at and throw punches at? People would follow her with no questions asked, and now not one of them will even listen to her.

A couple of days pass and she spends it by trying to bend bars, trying to punch through walls, and keeping tabs on her friends and also Kalina. Lucky for her, as soon as Kalina switched their bodies out, she lost the cloak that was keeping Kalina's powers from seeing her. She is on her way back to where Olivia is now. This can't be good. She had to get to these people before she did. 

"Guards! Guards!" She starts yelling out, trying to get them to come back down to talk to her. "Guards! Guards!" The door slams open again, this time a very large demon walked through the door. "Aw, Fineas, good to see you are still loyal to the family, and spiny as ever." She smiles as she looks at the spiny skin he has.

"What do you want, Kalina?" He asks with a bored look.

"I want to talk to Alexander."

"Do not refer to him by his name. He's above you, slave." He crosses his arm to show his seriousness. "And why would I go get him for you? So you can annoy him with your banging around and yelling?"

"No, its because I've finally located his sister for him. Don't you think he'd want to know?" She sees him considering her statement.

"You're lying again. You always say you know where she is and you always send the soldiers on a stupid pointless chase that just ends up pissing him off."

"I know where she is. Her cloak has fallen. Do you want to be the one responsible for not letting him know valuable information?" Olivia raises her brows in a challenge. "I suggest you get him down here now." The demand is clear in her tone.

Fineas takes a minute to consider it, weighing the pros and cons in case she is lying again. He finally nods and moves to the door. "I'll talk to him and see what he wants to do, but you remember the last time. He promised unbelievable pain and torture and eventually a very painful death to you the next time you lie about Olivia. Are you sure you want to risk that?" He smiles with arrogance.

"Go get him!" She orders. "You might want to hurry, too!" She yells at him as he walks out the door and slams it behind him to make a point.

It is hours before Olivia hears the door open again and this time hears several pairs of footsteps coming down the stairs and the short hallway to approach her. She sees her brother in the lead with three of his minions, the nicest word she has for them, following him, each holding a fun weapon of choice.

"Well, Kalina, I've heard that you have finally broken through my sister's cloak. I doubt it since I know how powerful she is, but I'm interested in hearing your story nonetheless because you know the consequences of another pointless chance." Alexander moves up to the cage and reaches out to brace himself as he leans against it. "Personally, I'm hoping you are lying to me just so I can follow through with my promise."

Olivia rolls her eyes. "Seriously, bro, you need to get a new act." 

"Excuse me?" He pushes himself off the bars but steps up closer to intimidate his prisoner. "I'm sorry, did you have something to say to me?"

"Yeah, you need to find other ways to get yourself off. No suitable girl for you yet?" Olivia pushes his buttons.

He quickly and easily reaches through the bars and grabs her by her throat. As Olivia struggles for air, she has to remind herself that she's not as strong in this body, and this is not the way to win him over. "Is this 'new' enough for you?" He growls with distaste.

"Alexander, please," she continues to struggles for air as she grips at his hand, trying to loosen his grip. At the sound of his name, he does just that. "I know where you sister is."

"Where?" His anger and impatience is strong. 

"You have to believe me when I tell you this." Olivia stares at him for a moment as she watches her brother's annoyance grow and decides to just tell him. "I'm your sister. It's me, Olivia. Kalina switched our bodies and she's on her way here. She wants revenge on both of us, especially me." She rolls her eyes again at the last part. Its always me they want revenge on. "If you don't stop her, she'll kill me and probably even you. She wants to take over, and with my powers she could do so. You have to trust me."

"I really am tired of this act." He groans. "Besides, you haven't been able to see through her cloak for this long, so how am I supposed to believe that you can, all of a sudden, see through it now?"

"That's what I'm saying. She's not as aware of everything as I am in my body." Olivia feels her annoyance level overloading. Within a second, her pleading look turns into one of curiosity. "I do have to ask though. Why are you using Kalina to look for me, when you know that you can find me very easily with her powers? Why didn't you just kill her and then find me yourself?"

Alexander rolls his eyes. "That's enough Kalina! I'm over this whole act. If you want to die, just say so. I'll take care of that right now."

"I'm not Kalina!" She yells.

"Of course you are. Who else would you be?" Two heads whip around towards the new voice in the room. 

Olivia sees herself standing in front of her, and scoffs when she sees the outfit she is wearing. "I would never wear that!" She exclaims to her brother as if that should be the deciding factor for him to believe.

Kalina looks down at her outfit. She sees a very low-cut mid-drift that shows off her curvy chest and very flat stomach. Then on down farther is her short skirt to barely cover her butt and tall boots to cover her feet and her calves. Kalina holds her arms out in show. "I can see why you wouldn't. You could never look this good in this outfit, Kalina." She smiles as she stresses the name. Turning to Alexander who is now looking at her with shock. "It's me, big bro. Happy to see me again?"

"What are you doing back here?" He asks. "I didn't think we'd ever see you here again."

"Well, I didn't think I would ever come back, but as you see, I've changed my mind. After time to think and me missing my life, I decided it was time to come back. Enough moping over a stupid human. You were right, it was doomed from the start anyway, you were just doing me a favor. I see that now. I'm tired of this, I'm ready to get back to who I'm really meant to be, and I say I start with killing this whiney bag of wind." She points towards Olivia in the cage.

Alexander looks at his sister and then to person standing behind the bars. "I'm up for it. I'm getting tired of her anyway."

Kalina walks over to stand against the bars to look Olivia straight in the eyes, but speaks to Alexander. "After we take care of this pest, I have a few more in mind that could prove to be fun for us. I know where two half-breeds, one being a witch, and three humans that have grown quite attached to me. They won't even see it coming." She smirks.

"Humans are boring but the half-breeds could be fun, especially a witch." Alexander agrees.

"The half-breeds will be more fun if you kill the humans first. They are fond of them and would do anything to protect them. The non-witch one can also be more satisfying as the one-that-got-away." Kalina raises her eyebrows at Olivia, challenging her to speak up.

"One-that-got-away. I don't let them get away." Alexander claims and waves off the thought. He tells his sister that he's in. He would love to get back into the game with his sister, most especially since he's gained more powers since she left.

Olivia silently pleads with Kalina not to do this to her friends. She didn't care what they ended up doing to her, but her friends were all innocent in this. If it hadn't been for her need to stick around, this never would have happened and now her friends are in danger of her brother and someone who swears revenge on her.

Kalina leans more towards Olivia to keep Alexander from hearing. "The best part of all of this is the fact that your friends are on their way here to save you. Which will make it even easier on us to kill them. I think we'll keep you alive just long enough to see that happen."

Olivia leans forward, also, and smirks at Kalina. "Want to hear the best part of all of this?" Kalina doesn't answer but just glares as she waits to hear what Olivia has to say. "Alexander can hear just like I can. He's almost as good at it as I am. You are nearly strong or skilled enough to keep him out. He'll catch on to you really fast. Try not to think too much. "She teases as she pulls away and laughs. 

Kalina growls as she storms away, slamming the big door behind her exit. Olivia just laughs even harder, looking over at her brother to see the suspicious look on his face. "Man, she is having some issues. She may want to control that rage. Maybe you could do that for her. Feel free to get inside her mind and see what's really wrong with her." Olivia says, hoping her brother will take her suggestion and see that she isn't really who she claims to be.

Alexander just gives her a simple look but leave without a word.

Olivia just huffs in frustration as she throws herself down on her makeshift, crappy excuse for a bed. She starts to think about her friends and wonders if Kalina is telling the truth about them coming to their world. It wouldn't be safe for them under normal circumstances, and these are worse circumstances. She concentrates hard so she can picture them in her mind, see what they were doing exactly.

***

"We have to do something. We can't just sit around and wait for whoever that was to kill the real Olivia." Alyssa demands. "Olivia was, is, our friend. She was doing everything she could to help us out, and because of us she is now in danger. We owe it to her to help her."

"What do you suggest we do?" Cara ask with an attitude. "We can't just walk up to wherever and demand to have her back. If they want to kill her, I'm pretty sure that they wouldn't hesitate at all to kill us too. These people, demons, things, whatever or whoever they are have been looking for her for years, and now they have her. What makes you so sure we can do anything to get her back?"

"We have to try. I have to try. I'm not going to just sit around here and do nothing." Alyssa stands up, and grabs the book they had gotten from the shopkeeper. "I'll find a way." She leaves the house in fury and goes back to her apartment.

"I'm not saying I don't want to help her, but I don't see what we can do. We're human." Cara tells Justin, making sure he knew she isn't just wanting to get rid of Olivia.

"I know. Alyssa is just really upset right now. How about you all go home and get some sleep? Its been a long and difficult night for us all." Justin says and not to his surprise, they all agree with him without a fight.

Justin makes his way to his bedroom slowly and gets dressed for bed, but he can't get his mind of Olivia. He can't help but feel guilty. He saw the signs, he knew there was something wrong, but he didn't do anything about it. He continued to push her. He saw that she was getting tired, but he didn't insist on her taking it easy and resting. Instead he just went along with her stupid sessions and helping her work with the others and whatever else came up. He had no idea she was even staying up through the night to make sure all was safe around them. He should have known, and he should have stopped it all. Olivia drained herself for them, and she didn't complain. She should have said something! 

He feels himself getting pissed at Olivia for not saying anything to any of them. They could have helped her, before she got to her breaking point. But instead of talking to them, she allowed herself to get weak, to lose control, to lose herself to someone else. What was she thinking?!

He yells out in frustration, anger, and mostly fear for his friend. He puts his sweatpants and t-shirt back on and slides his feet into a pair of sandals before grabbing his keys and leaves his house. He drives himself to Alyssa's and it only takes him seconds to see that her lights are still on.

He quickly parks his truck and makes his way to her front door. He needs these answers just as much as she did. They have both grown greatly attached to Olivia, and they could not lose her, not now, not ever. He knocks on her door, and she doesn't take long to answer and let him in.

"I can't sleep. I need to know what we can do to help. If going to get her is our best option, then I'm in. We can go without the others. We have a better fighting chance for all of us." Justin says, knowing he can't put anymore of his friends in danger than he has to. "Have you found anything?"

"I actually did. There's a spell that can help us locate her. It also mentions being able to help locate and enter demon dimensions. If she's there, we can use a spell to help us find it and get to it. It does require demon blood though, pure demon blood. We'll need your mom's help. Think she'd agree?" Alyssa's face didn't show that she had much faith in a positive answer.

"No, but there are ways of getting it without asking. She may accidently cut herself." He shrugs. "Let's hope for this world though, first." 

Alyssa nods and tells him what they have to do to work the locating spell. With the two working together, it doesn't take them long to get the needed supplies and to get started on the spell. She says a few words and lights a few candles as she adds a few things into a mix. She repeats the words several times. Justin starts to doubt that it will work, but he starts to see lights moving around him and suddenly a book flies at them and opens on the floor in front of them as the light shines on a page.

There in front of them was a map of some other dimension, one that didn't look so welcoming, and on the map there was a very mall light shining. This is where they would find their friend.

"Demon dimension it is." She scrunches up her face.

"How about we rest for tonight since we know where she is and how to get us there? I'll get to my mom tomorrow." He says as he stands up, but he doesn't remove his eyes from the page in the book. His stomach is not very calm, and he doesn't know how they will pull this one off.

"Want to stay here for the night so you don't have to drive back? It will probably make sneaking away to another dimension a little easier." Alyssa smiles, trying to ease the tension. "You can sleep in Olivia's bed."

Justin nods without a word and just turns to go to his bed for the night. He had to stay strong, he had to make this work, he had to get Olivia back.

Alyssa blows out the candles, puts away the books, except the one with the needed map, and goes to bed herself. Just before she gets her door closed, she hears Justin whisper a quiet thanks before he shuts his own door. She was going to get Olivia back, if its the last thing she does.

It is not a very restful night for either one. Alyssa can't shake the bad feeling she was having. She tries to think about what they will do to get to Olivia and what they will do as soon as they do. She then tries to think happy thoughts of flowers, butterflies, and whatever else to bring on sleep but she could only find herself barely dozing. 

She groans in frustration as she rolls over and sees the annoying red lines screaming out 3:57 am to her. She closes her eyes and tries the only thing she has left, meditating. Olivia told her that breathing and clearing one's mind will help with focus and strength, and she is hoping that her advice will help in finding enough peace to at least get some sleep.

She makes herself comfortable and just closes her eyes and starts with deep breaths. She only concentrates on her breathing, trying to to clear her mind. she breathing for for about fifteen minutes when she finds herself starting to doze again, but this time she doesn't fear of waking up. She lies back down and just continues her breathing and keeping her mind clear. It isn't long before she is asleep.

Alyssa, I need you to hear me. Please listen to me. You cannot come to me. Do not search for me. It is not safe for you or anyone else. They know you are coming, and they will kill you. Do not come for me. Do not come for me. Do not come for me.

Alyssa shoots up in her be, gasping for air, and covered in sweat. Her door flies open, and Justin rushes over to her bedside.

"Are you okay? I heard you yelling out, and I was worried something happened." He tells her, and notices that she is sweating and her face is covered with fear. "What's wrong? Something is wrong. What is it?" He is working himself up, and keeps asking because he is almost afraid to hear the answer.

Alyssa is still trying to slow her breathing. "Olivia," she whispers, which catches Justin's attention immediately, "she...she was telling....she was telling me that we can't go to her. That they know we are coming and they will kill us."

"Olivia told you this? How?" Justin questions.

"I having trouble sleeping." She has now gotten control over her breathing again and tells Justin what exactly happened.

"Wow. How did she know we were going to come? How did she get into your head?" Justin asks, more to himself. "That girl never ceases to amaze or surprise me each and everyday." Alyssa catches the small smile that appears on his face, but it fades quickly into a sad frown. "If we can't go to her, then how are we supposed to get her back. If Olivia is as strong as I think she is, the other girl will be too with her body and her powers. How are we supposed to fight that and get our Olivia back." Justin jumps up and starts pacing.

"We will figure something out. I'm sure there is something in that crazy book in there. Go to bed. We need to get some rest if we are going to be worth anything at all. We'll figure it out." Alyssa tries to assure herself as she does the same for Justin. She just hopes that they can figure something out and figure it out really soon, before its too late.