***

"Why do you think that makes a difference? Just because one day, you will die, doesn't mean that she loves you any less. She's met you now, she'll find you next life, and the life after that, and the life after that. Unless, of course, Zeus gets involved, then it'll all get very messy."
"Why?"
"Well... Do you want 50 daughters?"
"What?"
"Then you'd better hope she doesn't bring him into it."
"I don't understand."
"Well, maybe you should ask Jade about the prophecy. If I were you, I'd opt to die and be reborn though. Let's go to bed, Ptah."
"Right. Night, Dazz."
"Night."
They left him, looking confused, and then he headed to the Internet.

***

"Morning," Kat said, slipping into her chair and pouring a glass of juice. "Thanks, Tim," she added, as he slid a plate of food in front of her.
"Morning. Did you know Dazz was up all night, looking up the prophecy on the Internet?"
"No, what did he find?"
"Not much. Just enough to make me promise not to try and get him turned into a God, and not to get Zeus involved at all."
"Smart boy."
"Too smart," Jade sulked.
"Oh, come now. You know the rules."
"I know. But where's the fun in being a goddess, if you can't bend the rules every now and then?"
"You know he needs to incarnate at least a hundred more times before he's anywhere near ready."
"I know, I know. And I also know that the next 500 or so years of having him being mortal is going to be wonderful -" Jade smirked, and Kat laughed, "- but I am impatient."
Kat laughed again, and smiled at Marc as he entered the room.
"So, allowing for the no shortcuts, did you still want to get Anubis involved?"
"I don't know. It has advantages, and disadvantages."
Marc raised an eyebrow.
"You want to get Anubis involved?" he asked Jade.
"Where were you last night?" Jade teased.
"Distracted, obviously," Marc grinned, glancing at Kat's chest.
Jade laughed."I was saying we should get Anubis to come and help protect you and Darryl."
Marc bristled.
"I am well capable of taking care of myself. I have one weakness, and as she is right here," he wrapped his arm around Kat, "I have no need of the protection of a death God."
"My concern was that with removing the taint from Marc and Darryl, you have no way of knowing who is behind it all," Tim interrupted.
"We tried that before we burned it out," Kat replied. "The tracks were too well masked, it wasn't traceable anyway. Plus everyone else in the group is tainted, so if you have some secret demon tracking device we don't know about, there's more than enough taint within the rest of the group."
"Well, actually, I did bring this."
Tim produced a small golden rod.
"What is that?"
"I picked it up a few months ago, at an estate sale, actually. If you touch this end to someone with demonic taint, when the rod is near the demon, it vibrates. And if the rod touches the demon, it will suck the energy into it, leaving the demon helpless for about 15 minutes."
"Well now. That is a nifty little toy," Kat purred with a predatory smile.

Jade wandered into the courtyard, and stopped in astonishment.  Kat was standing there, waving the golden rod around for all to see, and the boys were just standing by with notebooks, watching.  Forgetting that she wanted to be alone, Jade strode up to them.
"What do you think you're doing?" she hissed at Kat, under her breath.
"Psychology experiment," Kat replied, then approached a good-looking under-graduate and murmured, "May I touch you with my rod?"
He obviously replied the affirmative, as Kat lightly ran the rod down him arm, finishing on his hand.
"Thank you," she whispered, huskily, and directed him towards the boys.
"May I touch you with my rod?"
As Jade watched, a slow succession of students were touched by Kat, then directed to the boys.
"And what is your part in this?"
"We're collecting the vital statistics," Darryl replied, writing.  "Name, Age, Sex, and Religion."
"Religion?"
"That's the grouping variable for the study."
"Oh."
Jade watched as he wrote.
"What does the one and zero mean?"
Darryl gave her a look.
"They're Kat's grouping variables.  One is yes, zero is no."
"What about people who say no?"
"They're the ones with the stars."
"I see."
Watch this one! Kat's voice came sharply into Jade and Marc's minds.
Jade glanced over, and saw a young, attractive girl, being touched.  Jade frowned as the girl seemed to shimmer as the rod touched her.
"Thank you," Kat said, brightly.  "Please go to the handsome boys over there and give them your details.  Phone number is optional," and Kat winked.
"That's a strange looking thing.  Where did you get it?" the girl asked, in a slightly rough voice.
"Oh, I picked it up in an op-shop for a fiver," Kat smiled.  "I thought it was just weird enough to use for the experiment, without scaring people off."
She smiled brightly again.
"I really like it.  Can I buy it off you?"
"Well, I need it for my experiment, but you can buy it after I'm done with it."
"What if I provide an alternative?"
"Well, my results won't be reliable if I change mediums half way through!" Kat laughed.  "But we're only collecting Data for another week, so if you want to give the boys your number, I'll give you a call when I've finished?"
The girl nodded, and walked quickly to the boys.  Jade noticed the strange shimmer again, and glanced at Kat.
What's going on?
Demon.  Or maybe just demon familiar, I'm not sure.  I don't know how long it takes before they're completely helpless.  Try not to show that you notice anything wrong.
Jade wrinkled up her nose as she smelled sulphur.
"What's that smell?" Darryl asked, as Marc took the girl's details.
"The chemistry building must be venting," Jade replied.  "Smells like sulphur or something."
The girl finished giving her phone number, then hurried off.
Should we follow her?
Well, we know that it'll be powerless for 15 minutes, but we don't want to let on that we know...  Maybe if we pack up and casually stroll in that direction.
"Are we done?" Darryl asked.
Remembering to speak out loud, Marc replied, "We have to get this data coded before the end of break.  So we should probably stop now."
The four walked in the direction the girl had hurried off.  They entered a dark alley between two buildings, and Kat stopped, suddenly.
"What is it?"
"My phone is ringing," Kat replied, opening her backpack and rummaging through it.  "Come on, come on, where are you?"
Look for her, the rod is vibrating like nothing else.

The demon stood, cloaked in shadows.  Her glamour was fading badly, and she didn't have enough power left to open a rift.  She barely had the energy to stay hidden, and if it wasn't for the assistance of her shadow cloak, she knew she would be visible already.  And they all stood there, in plain sight, while Sekhmet looked in her bag for a telephone that the demon knew wasn't ringing.  The demon held her breath, and hoped they'd leave soon, so she could open the hatch to the storm water drain and get away without being seen in her true form.  Following Selene had not been helpful.  She hadn't had a chance to approach her before she had rejoined the others.  And that strange rod.  They obviously hadn't known what it was or what it did, but the demon recognised it now, and wanted to get her hands on it, so it could be destroyed.  To this end, she had given the name and contact number she had been using in her guise as a student.  She hoped that she would remember to call to sell her the rod.  Her power was completely gone now, and she was relying completely in the residual power in the shadow cloak to keep her hidden.  At last, Sekhmet lifted her phone, looking puzzled at it not ringing, and dropped it back into her bag.
"You're imagining things," Selene laughed.  "Come on, we have to get this data coded."
The four turned the other way, and without waiting a second longer, the demon lifted the hatch and dropped into the water, then started running towards her home.

"She had a shadow cloak," Marc whispered, as they stood around the open hatch.  "And it was a she, that wasn't just the glamour."
"I thought you said it passed from father to son."
"It did.  This may be a different demon."
"That's unusual," commented Kat.  "It's usually the male demons causing problems, sacrificing female virgins and things.  I wonder what she wants with you."
Kat looked speculatively at her consort.
"Are we going to follow her?" Jade asked.
"Oh no," Kat said, suddenly.
"What?" Jade asked.
"Oh no.  Remember when I told you that I was missing something?"
"Yes?"
"I just got the missing piece.  Remember when they had Ptah, all those years ago?  Think back to the alter."
"They had a queen," Jade recalled.
"Yes.  They had a demon queen, and her consort.  Ptah forced the consort to incarnate, we escaped, and so did their queen."
"Yes," Jade prompted.
"The consort is here, somewhere, in human form."
"Yes."
"He's summoned her.  The queen.  That's who she was."
"I didn't get a clear look at her, but I think you might be right there," Marc replied.
"So there's the demon queen, here, in demonic form, and her consort, here, in human form."
"Right."
"And they want me to kill all the humans."
"Yes."
"But they didn't kill Ptah when they had him last time.  Why?"
"Because they want something from him..." Jade mused.
"I think they want to make a half demon, half god."
"That's monstrous!"
"Yes."
"But it would be able to open the doors," Marc replied.
"Yes.  And them doing to him what they would need to do to have a child by him..."
Jade noted with apprehension that the darkened corner was starting to glow red.
"Why didn't they take what they needed last time?"
"Because in God form, we can choose if we want to be fertile or not.  In human form, we don't have a choice."
"This is very bad."
"They have what they wanted last time.  The queen and her consort on Earth.  If they use him to make a child, I'll rid the earth of the humans, and their child can open the door to let in the hoards.  The pieces all fit."
"Oh my," Jade said quietly.  "We have to talk to Tim."
"I'm going to kill her."
"Yes, you are, but she has too much of a head start now.  We have to talk to Tim and work out what we're going to do."
"Class?" Darryl queried.
"No," Jade replied harshly.  "This is far too important."
She wrapped an arm around Kat.
"Keep it covered."
She noticed with relief that the red glow lessened a little.
"We have to hurry."

The demon waded from the sea back along the back to the house her consort owned.  She glanced once towards the house that Ptah had lived in since his incarnation as an infant, but didn't pause to look as she usually did.  She had to get inside, where it was safe, where she could rest until her powers returned.  She rushed inside, out of the daylight, and closed the door firmly behind her.