The drive to Madam Bavoux's Voodoo Shop took less than five minutes. But with Sage's unconscious body in my lap, it felt more like five hours. Every little twitch of her eye lids, or noise that escaped her mouth would cause my anxiety level to raise a little more. I may not have known Sage for a long period of time, but the twin connection we shared was undeniable now. The longer we were together the more it began to feel like she was a part of me, like extra limb or second heart. She was my sister, and I was determined to make sure she was okay, no matter what.

When we pulled up to the shop Freya was already waiting for us out on the sidewalk. Her thick braids piled high on her head like the last time we saw her. Everyone jumped out of the van and made room for Mr. B to lift Sage off of me, and I hurried behind them, refusing to let Sage leave my sight.

Freya escorted us through her shop, making sure to lock it up behind us and turn her open sign to close. As we slowly shuffled through the small shop I couldn't help but take a long look around us. The walls held shelves of strange statues and candles, some displayed odd masks and jewelry. Fake shrunken heads and voodoo dolls hung from the ceiling with price tags attached. One corner of the shop was set up with a table and chairs, a deck of cards sat atop it along with a few incense that was already lit and filling the shop with the smell of jasmine and lavender.

For the most part, the shop looked like it was more of a tourist attraction than an actual provider of occult goods. Behind the sales counter, T-shirts hung on the wall, decorated with an assortment of voodoo related cartoons. But inside the glass case attached to the counter, were jars and jars of different looking herbs. Some were labeled with names like bloodroot, patchouli, rue, vervain, angelica root, cardamom, and juniper. While other jars weren't labeled at all.

Freya led us to the back of her shop, pass the card table, and down a small hallway. The hallway only held two doors, one I assumed was a bathroom, while Freya pulled out a ring of keys and started to unlock the last door. Once the door was unlocked she quickly hustled us all in one by one and then followed making sure to lock the door behind her.

The room on the other side of the door was surprisingly big compared to the small shop in the front. The large room seemed to be a living area with a huge sectional sofa that faced a small television set on one side and an open kitchen on the other. Dividing the two areas was a kitchen bar that jutted out from the wall and was lined with bar stools. One wall on the television side was covered with bookshelves that reached from the floor to the ceiling and the farthest fall was taken over by a grand mahogany staircase. With all the rich brown furniture and wood tones, the entire space felt completely warm and cozy. The stone fireplace attached to the center point of the back wall only added to the feeling.

"Wow Freya, you remodeled." Ms. Pierce commented.

I had no idea what this area looked like before, but if it was anything close to what the shop out front looked like, she definitely had a good carpenter.

Freya ignored the comment and darted into the kitchen.

"Xavier lay the girl on the couch." She instructed as she busied herself with digging through the kitchen cabinets.

My curiosity on what she was looking for was beaten by my worry for Sage's well being. I followed behind Mr. B and anxiously bounced on my heels while he gently laid her onto the couch. The blood flowing from the gash on Sage's head and come to halt but that fact did little to comfort me. I needed her to open her eyes and talk to me before I could feel better about this whole situation.

At the end of the couch, just inches from the top of Sage's head was just enough room for me to take a seat. The rest of the group mosied around the large space and slowly picked out places to quietly sit. Within just a few short minutes Freya rushed over from the kitchen, her arms full of wash clothes, rolls of bandages, and different bottles of unknown liquid. Ms. Pierce followed behind her, a bowl of water carried cautiously in her hands. The two women knelt down next to the couch and Freya began by cleaning the wound on Sage's head.

"What was she hit with?"

"A piece of rock."

Freya looked up at me as if questioning my answer, but her hands never stopped their frenzied pace.

"It was my fault." Mr. B's deep baritone voice boomed just a few feet away.

I hadn't realized he was standing there until he spoke. Now that I noticed him I also noticed the first real expression, other than boredom or irritation, that filled his face. He looked....guilty. Not that he had anything to feel guilty about in my book, but it was clear he was beating himself up internally for what happened to my twin.

"Mr. B, it wasn't your fault. It was that.....person."

It was like he didn't even hear me, his face still pinched as if he was in pain.

Ms. Pierce placed the bowl of water on the floor and left Freya to work alone as she got to her feet and walked to stand by Mr. B's side.

"Xavier, it wasn't your fault. We had no idea Silas would make an attempt on the kids so close to the public."

"Silas?"

"Silas?" Freya and I both asked at the same time.

Ms. Pierce looked at both of us but started by answering Freya first.

"They wandered off into the woods by the park. Silas must have been watching them, he made an attempt to reach them."

"Stupid imp," Freya muttered under her voice.

"Wait, you know who that was?"

Wes stood from the bar stool he had previously occupied and stomped over to the adults talking about us, right in front of us, like we weren't even there. I wanted to jump to my feet as well, and second his question, but the thought of leaving Sage's side made my stomach roll.

"He's not a who, he's a what." Ms. Pierce explained, sounding an awful lot like Confucius who also apparently went by the name Silas.

"He's a lower level demon, nothing to seriously worry about except for the fact that he's been known to associate with the Keepers from time to time."

Hearing that the hooded figure who spoke so casually with us in the woods, was a living breathing demon, shook me to my core. I couldn't help but wonder if his face looked like the red, horned creature Ms. Pierce had shown us just a week ago. Thing was, Silas was a lot smaller than the demon we had seen before, which made me feel slightly less threatened by him. Well that and the fact that he didn't seem to want to harm us but only talk with us.

Thinking about the whole encounter, I thought about what he said, about how we should question Ms. Pierce and the organization, that they were hiding things from us.The whole conversation spun in my head, repeating itself over and over again until I could no longer take it.

"The other day, by the stone doors, you said every generation a new group of dembions is born."

Ms. Pierce flinched and the nodded slowly. Her piercing eyes locked onto me as if expecting my next words.

"Where's the rest of your group?"

Mr. B flopped his overly large body into a brown leather armchair while Ms. Pierce paced the floor. Waiting for them to collect their thoughts, I watched Freya work on Sage's wound. The blood was cleaned away now, and she lightly poured a clear liquid onto the opening before tapping a think pad of gauze over it. When she was done with addressing the injury, Freya propped a decorative sofa pillow under Sage's head, and carefully pried her mouth open. With one hand on Sage's chin and the other wrapped around an unmarked bottle, she poured a small amount of the bottles dark contents down her throat and quickly switched the bottle out for a rag to clean the spillage from around her mouth. Sage coughed the liquid down and I was relieved to finally see some kind of sign of life. But once it was clear the liquid had passed without any trouble, her body laid still again.

"The medicine will make her sleep for a couple hours, but it'll help her wound to heal. It should also take care of any pain she may feel when she wakes up." Freya informed me patting a delicate hand on my knee before gathering her supplies and carrying them back into the kitchen.

I wanted to ask what the medicine was, and if it was some kind of voodoo remedy but I was still waiting for Ms. Pierce to answer my original question. Wes took a seat on the arm of the couch, right next to me, and looked at the pacing red-haired women expectantly.

The tension in the room grew thick and suffocating, obviously affected by it, Ms. Pierce eventually stopped her pacing and squared her shoulders as she faced us. The rest of our group, who had remained silent this whole time, snapped to attention as well. One by one the got up from their seats and walked to stand behind the couch, behind Wes, Sage, and me. We were a united front, and that thought strengthened my resolve to get answers, all the answers.

"There were six in our group." Ms. Pierce started going into her traditional storytelling mode. "Xavier, myself, Andrew, Joshua, Dante, and Trina."

With each name, her body shook just ever so slightly, as if she was containing waves of emotion. Whatever emotion it was, never reached her face.

"We were recruited by the organization after are demonic switches flipped on our sixteenth birthdays, just like you all. Only we weren't recruited at Landry's, we were picked up off the streets or plucked from our homes, and trained in a top-secret facility. We were pushed hard, harder then I have pushed any of you."

The memories flashed in her eyes and that emotion she tried so hard to keep at bay started to creep into her facial features. Mr. B leaned forward in his seat, rested his elbows on his knees, and held his head in his hands, hiding his face from prying eyes.

"They didn't know at the time, but the demonic abnormalities of our DNA did more than give us special abilities, or make us unnaturally strong or fast. As we grew older and trained harder, some of us started to crack."

She paused and I wanted so badly to push her to keep going. But her lip started to quiver and her body lost its strong stance as her shoulders slumped forward. Whatever memories that haunted her mind were taking a serious toll on her usual fierce demeanor.

"First Andrew froze during a battle against the keepers. It was like his mind and body shut down all at once, mid-fight. It gave a Keeper Vamp the right opening to go in for the kill. We were devastated..." She glanced to Mr. B who was still hiding in his large hands. "but they didn't think anything of it. Then Dante lost it during a training session and killed four trainers. A guard shot him in the head to keep him from killing more. After that, the organization hired top scientists and doctors to experiment on the rest of us."

Mr. B finally dropped his hands from his head and got up to take Ms. Pierce's side. Even Freya came out of the kitchen, grim and somber she took to Ms. Pierce's other side. She must have heard this story before.

With the comfort of the two siblings on each side of her, Ms. Pierce continued.

"Apparently human blood and demon blood is not the best combination for the mind. After years of experiments, they concluded that we were all doomed to lose pieces of our minds, our sanity, some more than others."

It felt like I had just been given a death sentence.

I had seen movies where doctors explained to the main character that they were deathly ill and only had x amount of time to live. That what this felt like now. Only I might not really die, I just might not be me anymore. One day down the line, sooner or later, I was going to lose my mind. We all were going to lose our minds. Would I know when it happened? Would I feel it and recognize it for what it was? I always thought crazy people never understood that they were crazy. Would that be me?

"Then why are you two here?"

I was surprised to hear Declan ask such a serious question, with such a serious tone. I guess being told something this heavy was big enough to knock even the silliest of people back down to reality.

Ms. Pierce looked at us, and for the first time since she started talking, her eyes lit up just the slightest bit.

"We've taken precautions. It seems the more you use your powers the quicker it happens. So Mr. B and I reserve ours for only the direst of circumstances."

Lucas laughed from behind me. "Yet you keep pushing us to use ours, to get better at it, to master it. Why? So we can all go crazy before our eighteenth birthdays? Why even fill us in on what we are? You could have left us alone!"

The spot on the couch behind me was starting to get warmer by the second and I had a strong feeling Freya was going to wind up with a burn mark on her expensive couch.

"Lucas, we don't want to hurt you kids. But you would have found out what you were capable of eventually. At least this way you can learn to control it, you can learn not to hurt someone innocent and you can maybe save the world from the darkness."

"Or you know, be consumed by it," Declan muttered under his breath with a small chuckle.

Guess humor was an easier way to handle the situation after all.

I couldn't help but feel like her story wasn't done though. I needed to get all the answer, I had promised myself I wouldn't stop till I did.

"What happened to the other?"

"What?" Ms. Pierce asked furrowing her brows as she directed her attention to me.

"The others, you said there was six of you. Andrew and Dante died, and there are only you two standing here." I gestured to her and Mr. B with my hand. "What happened to the other two?"

This time it was Ms. Pierce's turn to take a break. Pain riddled her face and Mr. B directed her to the chair we had sat in, with one hand on the small of her back and the other on her shoulder. Then he turned to us, taking her place as the story teller, his booming voice filled the room.

"Joshua killed himself a couple years ago, after being placed in a high-security asylum. The next day Trina took off. We don't know what happened to her or if she's even still alive."