Black Winged Angel. Amy Blankenship

it up Kamui, and I’ll bring your whole computer system crashing down on you.”

      â€œThis coming from the man that doesn’t even know where the enter key on a keyboard is?” Kamui asked with one eyebrow arched. “I’m surprised you even know where the power button is on a monitor.”

      Toya leaned toward him, “I wasn’t talking about the hard drive.” His lips hinted at a wicked smile when Kamui gripped the laptop tighter and cringed.

      â€œEnough!” Kyou said, his voice echoing his authority. “Everyone take a seat. Kyoko, you may stay on the sofa if you wish, and no Toya… she is not sharing it.” He leveled his brother an irritated glare.

      Toya started grumbling about certain men with sticks and microchips up their asses before plopping down in Kyou’s chair. Kyou stared at him with the deadpan expression for which he was famous. When the silver-haired man felt a small tug on his hand, he looked down at Kyoko, who moved her feet so Kyou could sit on the other end of the sofa.

      Kotaro and Yohji sniggered as Kyou took the invitation and sat down, resting Kyoko’s feet on his lap.

      â€œAs you are all aware, tonight is Halloween,” Kyou began.

      â€œDuh!” Toya muttered, trying not to glare at Kyoko’s feet touching his brother.

      â€œWhich means,” Kyou continued while glaring at Toya. “Tonight, there will be increased activity. Pagan rituals will go wrong as usual, and the increased paranormal activity will escalate as well. All of us will be on high alert for the next twenty-four hours. Considering that Halloween parties will last longer into the night, being it’s Saturday… I believe you all get the idea.”

      â€œYeah, yeah, we got it.” Toya exclaimed. “Whoa, watch out for naked women running down the street being chased by lesbian gang bangers, ooh!”

      â€œWhere?” Shinbe asked loudly, having not paid much attention to anything since Suki had walked in.

      Kyou massaged the space above his eyebrows as he felt a slight pressure building. He and his brothers hid their powers well from the world, but sometimes he wondered if they had not regressed a bit too much. They had been sent here to keep Kyoko safe without her knowledge and to rid the world of as many demons as they could. He’d set up the agency as soon as he had realized what her choice career had been.

      Kotaro spoke up, “The police department has assigned my squad to the town square tonight because of the overload on the police force. Other cops will be there off and on because last year, the block parties didn’t die down till dawn and several people went missing that night.”

      Kamui nodded, flipping his laptop around to show everyone. “Guys, we have a witch in town.”

      â€œHere’s a news flash kid… tonight we have a lot of witches in town,” Yohji smirked. “Some of them sexier than others.”

      â€œThose witches aren’t sucking the life out of little children,” Kamui pointed to a list of names in the children’s ward of the hospital. “All of these kids are in comas, and it has all taken place within the last week. The doctors are stumped, because in every case, the kids were out after dark and all the tests they have run are showing no injuries. They simply won’t wake up.”

      Kyoko frowned as she tried to concentrate on the meeting. It was hard because she couldn’t shake the strange feeling that had stayed with her since she had seen the man across the street, then felt what she could have sworn were his arms around her.

      Pushing the memory away for a moment, her face grew sad thinking about all those children in the hospital. She had read once that if a witch took part of your soul, you fell into a deep sleep. Then you would have nightmares forever while the witch fed off your fear. Were all those children now stuck within those dreams, crying out for someone to save them?

      â€œI don’t guess a bucket of water dumped on her head will work but I want to be in on the hunt for something that cruel. How will we know the witch if we see it? Has anyone ever seen one? Aren’t they just humans who have tapped into an overload of magic?” She started firing questions as she tried to sit up, but Kyou placed his hand across her ankles to keep her from doing so.

      Kyou didn’t look at Kyoko, hoping she would think it wasn’t intentional as he curled his fingers around her ankles like a bracelet. At the moment, he had a protective barrier around her that was only held in place by his touch… plus, he simply wasn’t ready to lose contact with her just yet.

      He’d felt the powerful aura surrounding her just before she passed out. And although he had pushed it away from her… he still felt its presence lingering. That alone was enough to anger him. He had placed demon wards all over the building and in every corner of every floor within the drywall so they would not be noticed.

      His golden eyes rose to the huge picture window that sat in the middle of the outer wall. The weather for today and tonight was supposed to be clear and cool, so where had this strange storm come from. As he watched the rain closely, he noticed a silhouette where the rain did not pass through.

      Not wanting the apparition to know he had located it, Kyou turned his attention to Shinbe’s overly happy description of a witch.

      â€œA real witch was never human. Their souls are demonic and eternal. They keep their lives sustained by taking the life force of children and feeding off their nightmares. That is their food source. As for what one looks like, since so many children have already fallen victim, by now she should be in rare form… young, beautiful, and even angelic in appearance.”

      Shinbe cleared his throat and erased the erotic picture lingering in his mind’s eye. “She will not show her true form until she is in the middle of taking another’s life force or in battle. What she looks like during a feeding is truly hideous.”

      â€œYou would know,” Toya stated in a dark voice.

      Shinbe sent Toya a look that told him to remain silent and for once, Toya had the decency to drop it.

      Yuuhi was standing beside the chair his brother Amni was sitting in, but his eyes were on the rain outside the window when he spoke. “She will be in the center of town within the block parties, near the children’s festival, but she is not the only demon there. She is wary of those with powers superior to her own. That’s why she is on a feeding frenzy… storing power for the fight she knows is coming. She will add victims to her feeding frenzy tonight.”

      Tasuki rubbed the chill bumps on his arms. “I really hate it when you do that,” he muttered as he watched Yuuhi’s eyes. The only difference between the boy and a true albino was the fact that Yuuhi had deep black eyes, and when he got a vision, the blackness would grow… and that was just creepy.

      As Tasuki watched, Yuuhi turned his eyes on him and the ebony pupils became huge and luminous.

      â€œIt will not be a witch that you face tonight,” Yuuhi turned back to stare out at the rain as if he hadn’t just frightened Tasuki to death.

      Tasuki clinched his hands into fist, knowing the child wouldn’t tell him just what he was up against. Deciding to ignore the rest of the room, most of which were snorting quietly in amusement, he walked over to the cabinets that held all kinds of demon weapons and pulled out a small bag of sea salt and quickly slipped it into his pocket.

      He knew a few things about true magic, and if sea salt didn’t kill the witch or demons accompanying her… then it would at least give him a head start.

      Amni smirked as he watched Tasuki grabbing the salt. This was too good to pass up. Silently clearing his throat, he did a very good impersonation of the Wicked Witch of the West.

      Tasuki had to have jumped a mile out of his boots, turning around with a hand to his heart, glaring at the blonde psychic.