Preston

Here's the thing about having an angel as an advisor: You can gather pertinent intel to defeat demons. Since Grammy Gray didn't give us the right ammo to defeat these crazy bitches, I needed to dig before Maggie exposed us.

"Here." Castiel handed me a book.

"What's this?" I flipped the book, opened it, and scanned its contents.

"It explains about demons." He smiled like it was the best-kept secret.

I found the demon full of rage and read about it. That would explain who snatched Maggie and Eden. The next demon was called Asmodeus. He's linked to wrath, anger, and madness and can cause erratic behavior. Why didn't I like what I read?

"A friend of mine confronted a guy today. The guy called her crazy," I said.

"Did your friend touch this guy?"

I pursed my lips. "Unfortunately. She tapped his shoulder."

"Touch is compelling. It establishes a connection between two sources. It's one reason angels don't touch people unless needed. He is precise about his rules. It's why angels don't have free will."

"How do we break the connection?"

"You need to destroy the demon."

I nodded in understanding. "Okay, what if another friend gets touched by a demon? Let's say a powerful friend who could blow up inanimate objects."

"Your other friend has a better chance of destroying the connection."

"Is it possible for my friend to break the other connection?"

Castiel raised his brow at me.

"Like a small jolt to the other person."

"What do you think?"

"Great." I nodded, knowing Nash wouldn't like this idea.

******
Misty

When we returned to the boys' house, Nash took a shower to scrub Trixie's touch from his skin. I couldn't blame him. Who wants to smell like a skank?

I was sitting on the couch working on my class assignments when Nixon entered the house.

"Oh, good. I don't need to freaking hunt your ass down," he said, walking over to me. "Where's your cheap suit?"

"I doubt Nash would appreciate you calling him a cheap suit."

"He can deal with it. Now, where is he? I don't have time for your malarkey."

"You're so damn impatient. Nash is taking a shower to wash Trixie's touch from his body."

Nixon looked at the ceiling and blew air past his lips before sitting in a living room chair. "Demons can establish a connection if they touch you or if you touch them."

I pinched my brows together. "What?"

Nixon nodded. "The person you thought was Banks isn't Banks but someone else."

"Yeah, Nathan and Noah told us."

"Did they also tell you this douche needed to establish a connection with you?"

"No."

"Yeah, I didn't think so."

Nash came downstairs in a T-shirt and jeans, damp with hair, and sat beside me.

"Oh, goody. You're here. I need you to zap Maggie," Nixon said.

We did a double take.

"Wait. Did you say you need me to zap Mags?" Nash asked, sitting forward.

Nixon nodded. "Your lady love touched a demon and established a connection. You can only break the connection with a jolt. You're a walking electrical box." He waved his hand at Nash.

"You're asking me to shock my girlfriend."

"Shock, zap. Same thing. Do you want to destroy this connection or not?"

"Don't I have any say in this?" I asked.

"Not when you touched a damn demon." Nixon gave me a pointed expression.

I jumped to my feet. "I don't like your tone!"

Nixon got to his feet quickly. "I don't give a flaming shit what you like! Either Nash zaps your stupid ass, or we're fucked!"

I grabbed my textbook and whipped it at Nixon.

Nixon dodged it and smirked. "Missed me, you shrew."

I grabbed a candy bowl to throw it. Nash pressed his finger to my leg and zapped me, making me drop the candy dish and fall to the floor. My body jerked from the zap I received.

Nixon leaned over me. "How many jolts did you give her?"

"Enough that won't harm her," Nash said.

If I didn't feel like I stuck something metal into an outlet, I would beat his ass for this stunt. Holy hell!

Nixon placed his hands on me. I would have slapped his hands away, but I had no control over my body. Warmth flooded me as my body stopped moving. A few minutes later, Nash and Nixon helped me from the floor to the couch.

"What was that?" Nash asked Nixon.

"Apparently, I have the power to heal." Nixon held up his hand and wiggled his fingers.

"Why didn't you do that when Mags and Eden got injured?"

"I didn't realize I could do it until now." Nixon shrugged.

I rubbed my temples to ease the ache building.

Nash kneeled before me and checked me over. "Are you okay?"

"I feel like I have a massive hangover."

"I'll grab some ibuprofen." Nixon headed to the kitchen to retrieve my pain reliever.

I blinked several times. Nixon returned with the pain reliever and a bottle of water. I popped the pills and washed them down with the water.

"How do you feel now?" Nixon asked, studying me.

"Not like I'm losing my mind."

He nodded. "That's good. It means Nash broke the connection."

Nash kissed my forehead before moving to sit beside me.

Nixon returned to his seat. "You and Maggie need to avoid the two twits you encountered today."

"How? We attend the same damn school, and Trixie is in the same class with us."

"Leave that to me." Nixon smirked.

We arched our brows.

*******
Valentino

We dealt with one demon who almost ended Mags and Eden. Now, we have two hell-bent on driving us insane. It doesn't help that they resemble Banks and Trina.

Emilio entered the house, holding a contraption.

"What's that?" Nix asked, gesturing at the contraption in Emilio's hands.

"I've been trying to figure out how to draw power to the ring Aiden is building. We need excessive amp age without causing a blackout."

"Say what?"

"The ring Aiden is building will exceed the capacity of electrical boxes. You need to counter the electrical input with the proper output. Imagine drawing too much power from an outlet. You would trip a breaker. It's a safety feature to prevent  fire."

"How big is this ring?" I asked.

"Ask Uncle Marty since he designed it," Nix said.

"Uncle Marty didn't account for the excessive use of electricity. He blew up a model house."

"Then call your namesake since he's a master electrician." Nix smirked.

"I'll call Dexter." I rolled my eyes.

Nix shrugged.

I pulled out my cellphone, called Dexter, and put him on speakerphone.

Dexter answered after three rings. "Hello?"

"Dexter, it's Tino."

"Hey, Tino. How's college life?"

"It has its moments." I exchanged a questionable glance with the others. "I have a question about electricity."

"What do you want to know?"

"How much electricity would cause a blackout?"

"There isn't an amount of electricity used to cause a blackout. Blackouts happen when there's an imbalance where the electricity demand exceeds the power grid. It happened years ago, affecting four states and parts of Canada. It took hours for the utility companies to restore power. Some were without it for a day or two."

"What if we wanted to power a massive machine?"

"You would need to balance the power or risk an electrical explosion. Honestly, it depends on the machine. What the hell are you building?"

"Tell my dad I said hi." I ended the call before Dexter could question me further.

"How the hell are we going to draw enough power to run that ring Aiden is building?" Nix asked.

"Good question." I drew my brows, unsure how to power this contraption that Aiden was building. It's not like any of us are studying to become master electricians.

"We need someone who can help us figure out how to power this machine without telling them what we're doing."

"We could as my uncle Raymond," Mags suggested.

I looked at Mags. "What do you mean?"

"Uncle Raymond designed a prototype for a part to help mechanics diagnose a car issue."

"That's a car. We're talking about a big ass ring that would create a wormhole to suck in an entity," Nix said.

I sat back and blew air past my lips. We were no closer to figuring out how to power the ring than before.

"Emilio, keep working on how to power the ring. We'll focus on trying to avoid our new issue," I said.

Emilio nodded and headed upstairs to work on his latest contraption.

"Something's been bugging me," Nix said.

"What?" I asked.

"If this Bryce and Trixie are demons, why didn't Maggie's locket react?"

We glanced at Mags' locket and knitted our brows. Why didn't Mags' locket detect them as demons?