"The Gate Keepers are a cult that is intent on opening the dark portal completely."

I sat in a chair beside a small cot that Wes was currently sleeping on. The break room, as Ms. Pierce called it, was tiny and held four small cots and a couple chairs. Declan was occupying the cot across the room, while Sage, Lolly, Lucas, and Alicia took a seat in the remaining chairs. Ms. Pierce stood in the center of the room trying to justify working Wes and Declan so hard.

"The news broadcasts you all saw on the television were all cases of the destruction the Gate Keepers have caused in search of the key to unlock the dark portal."

Alicia fidgeted in her chair. "What key?"

"Well, technically the key is a book, the Book of Vernon."

Lucas looked as if he was about to interrupt but before he could say a word Ms. Pierce held up her hand to stop him.

"Vernon was the only human being ever to see the creator with his own eyes. He walked alongside the creator for years and recorded everything we now know today about the door of light and the dark portal. The Gate Keepers want it because it can tell them how to open the dark portal."

This all sounded bad but I wasn't willing to admit it out loud. I was still angry for Wes and Declan. Trying to hold onto that anger I asked, "What happens if they get their hands on the book?"

Ms. Pierce looked at with that same icy glare as before, the kind of look that chilled a person all the way down to the bone.

"If the dark portal is opened they will release every demon, witch, werewolf, vampire, and every other supernatural entity you can think of. It will literally be like releasing hell on earth. Problem is, they are already got the book. That's why the organization has been pushing me to get all of you ready as soon as possible."

I wasn't sure how the organization normally did things but maybe this explained why I had been feeling as if I was being fed to much information too fast. Just when I was able to get my mind wrapped around being a human-demon hybrid, I was then forced to accept the idea of powers and doorways to other worlds. All of it day after day with no real time to adjust. I'm surprised all of us were handling it as well as we had been. Most people probably would have run away screaming or lost their minds.

I thought back to the news broadcasts we had seen and the image of that priest in the ambulance hit me with such clarity. He looked so frail and beaten up, the Gate Keepers really weren't playing around.

"That priest, the one on the news, why did they attack him?"

Ms. Pierce's expression changed from strong and determined to a somber sadness as she pulled out a chair for herself and took a seat.

"Father Matthew was a part of the organization, he was hiding the Book of Vernon for us. The Gate Keepers had been searching graveyards thinking we had buried it somewhere until they got a tip about Father Matthew. After attacking him at his church they were able to get their hands on the book."

I had the sick feeling that Father Matthew didn't survive the attack, but I wasn't going to ask. Trying to take my mind off everything I turned to Wes' sleeping form. He laid on his stomach lightly snoring, oblivious to the entire discussion. One of us was going to have to fill him and Declan in.

"So what the hell are we suppose to do about all of this?"

Shaken from my thoughts, I looked up to see Lucas getting up from his seat and walking over to lean against the wall.

He had a point, what were seven teenagers suppose to do about a cult that wanted to reek hell on earth? Sure we had demon blood and were able to do things others couldn't, but we were still figuring this whole thing out. It wasn't like we had been training for this our whole lives. Hell, even if we had been I still wasn't sure exactly what we were supposed to do.

"Eventually we will need all of you to help us fight them. The Gate Keepers aren't just a group of humans, they have a few stray escapees from the dark portal. With the book, we're pretty sure they will make a move soon, and we will need you already when that time comes."

"And whats in it for us?"

I was shocked when the voice came from beside me. Wes rolled over on his cot but made no move to get up as he laid there eyeing Ms. Pierce. He still looked so exhausted and felt like insisting on him going back to sleep but I knew the question he asked was a serious one.

Ms. Pierce looked to him and casually offered, "Time of your sentence of course."

Yeah, I highly doubted it was that simple. Chances were, we would be lucky to get anything for putting our lives at risk.

"Alright, now it's time to get back to work." Ms. Pierce announced getting up from her chair. When Wes acted as if he was going to follow she pointed a finger at him. "Not you. You and Mr. Shaw need to rest right now. You can rejoin the group later."

I gave his hand a small squeeze and got up to head off to the training room with the others. Now that I knew for sure he was fine, I could concentrate on training.

In the training room, Lucas was already working on his fireball aim. I saddled up next to him with a new bucket full of baseballs, being careful not to get too close. He still had trouble with the straight flamethrower effect that would kick on by its self from time to time.

With both of us busy with target practice on the dummies, Lolly busied herself with teleporting all over the room. It looked like she was already a pro at it and was just doing it for fun now. Sage sat off to the side with a focused look on her face. Every few minutes she would ask me to think about something random and would practice pulling the information out of my head and yelling it back to me while I sent baseballs flying across the room.

"You're favorite colors red!"

"13!"

"You're scared of clowns!"

"You hate baseball!"

Eventually, Ms. Pierce handed her a notebook and pen and said she could record her findings in there instead of yelling it out. She also instructed Sage to start trying to read the rest of the group since reaching into my head was so easy for her. I had to agree, the yelling was starting to throw off my aim and I had missed the damn dummy ten times in a row.

When attempting it the eleventh time I missed again. Only instead of the ball flying past the dummy and hitting the wall, it stopped halfway to the wall and a loud "Ouch!" rang through the room. A second later Alicia appeared out of thin air with a nasty looking red mark on her forehead.

"Nice aim dumb ass!"

I tried not to laugh but couldn't hold it in as Lucas started cracking up next to me, along with Lolly who poofed over from across the room with a few giggles of her own.

"Be happy it was Chloe who hit you and not me," Lucas suggested.

Alicia threw him a killer look and stalked off to go take a seat along the wall.

After lunch, we came back to the training room to find Declan and Wes at it again. Well, more like multiple Declan's lining the wall and Wes standing off to the side with his hands in his pockets. He looked both lost and frustrated standing there alone, but his expression changed when I walked in. The sly smile took over as he sauntered towards me.

"Hey, Chloe." He said with a wink.

Looked like a little rest did him a lot of good and brought back his cocky nature. I tried to play annoyed but I couldn't help the smile on my face, I was happy he was up and the dark circles under his eyes had disappeared.

"Hey yourself."

Sage walked past with a playful push at my shoulder.

"Cut it out you two. It's bad enough I have to hear the things that run through Lucas and Lolly's heads. I don't need to hear all that sappy shit from you too."

"Then stop poking around in my head." Wes shot back.

I shook my head walking away to find my bucket of baseballs had been replaced with a stack of metal chairs.

Ms. Pierce was already waiting next to them.

"Bigger ammunition takes more energy. Time to practice with these."

"Better be extra careful now, Alicia," Lucas yelled out unable to control his laughter.

Alicia rolled her eyes but other than that she acted uninterested in the jab targeted at her. She walked over to the multiple Declans with a smile and started walking up and down the line of copies.

"Which one's the real Declan? Hmm. Eeny meeny miny moe!" She hollered the last word while jumping on the back of a random Declan. Surprisingly, she was right. All the copies merged into the Declan that she was currently clung to, piggyback style.

Declan gave a small chuckle. "How'd you know?"

Alicia jumped off his back and gave him a playful shove. "Lucky guess."

The way she looked up at him, I could have sworn she was practically batting her eyelashes at him. What the hell was going on?

Declan looked just as confused but said nothing about the weirdness.

"Sorry, I guess I shouldn't have jumped on you. You're still recuperating from working all night." The look on her face and the tone of her voice seemed sincere as she started rubbing her hand up and down his arm in a comforting gesture. "How are you feeling?"

Declan shrugged. "Not bad. Still got a lot of training to do though so I should get to that."

"Okay, let me know if you need any help."

Alicia gave him a flirty smile before disappearing into thin air.

The whole situation was awkward but I couldn't focus on that at the moment. I started working on getting the chairs lifted into the air. I had gotten so used to the baseballs that it didn't take much effort to move them. The chairs were much harder. I wound up having to actually use my hands to help focus my energy to even get the damn things off the ground. After holding the chair in the air for a minute I released my hold on it and let it clang to the floor. Breathing heavily I looked around the room.

Wes was off to the side with Mr. B and a target dummy. Mr. B was wrapping Wes' hands in tape and the started showing him different fighting stances while squaring up with the dummy. I guess until they found out his abilities it was fight training for him. But I had seen him fight those boys in the hall, it was clear he was already skilled in that area.

I looked around for Sage and found that she was only a few feet away from me. I had been so zoned out watching Wes I hadn't noticed her come over until now.

"Who are you trying to read?"

She was looking at Declan but she didn't look like she had earlier in the day when she was reading me. No, she looked at Declan like she wanted to throw a chair at him.

"What the hell was that with Alicia?" She asked me, not taking her eyes off of the now three Declans.

I shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine."

"Jealous Ramsey?"

Alicia materialized right behind Sage with an arrogant smirk.

"Ease dropping now, Alicia? That's pretty low, even for you." I couldn't help it. I could tell her comment had gotten under Sage's skin and I felt the uncontrollable urge to stick up for my twin.

Sage, on the other hand, said nothing. She turned and locked onto Alicia with that focused look, digging around inside the girl's mind. But Alicia just stood there with that same smirk.

It felt like a few minutes had passed by when Sage finally gave up with a huff.

"You know it's strange Alicia, the only thing I can find in your head is images of Declan. Either your obsessed or your too stupid to think of something else."

That a girl! Sage's comment verbally smacked Alicia in the face and sent that smirk packing. I couldn't help my own smile as stood back and watched, silently backing up my sister. Alicia must not have liked the odds of two on one and did her disappearing act to get away.

I wanted to jump up and down and congratulate Sage on the small victory but the look on her face said she didn't feel like celebrating. Instead, she turned back to continue eyeballing the now six Declans.

"You think he likes her?" She asked me.

"I think he'd be crazy to get involved with that mess. Besides," I bumped her shoulder with mine. "last I checked you were the only one he wanted to spoon with."

That brought a small smile to her face. "Well me and Wes." She added with a giggle.