hey gathered in Marc and Darryl's kitchen, and told Tim all they had discovered. The discovery of the demon's plot had shaken them all, and Kat was sitting in Marc's lap, while Jade was curled up beside Darryl.
"This is very bad news indeed. We'll have to make sure that one of us is with you at all times, Ptah. We don't want to take any chances."
"Attack is the best form of defence," Kat said, twirling the golden rod like a baton.
"Well, what do you suggest we do?"
"Banish them."
"Forgive me, my goddess, but we don't know where they are."
"Well, she'll be at their lair, recovering. Presumably he'll join her, as soon as he finds out she's not feeling her best. We have her phone number, is there any way of finding out what the house address for the number is?"
"That's my input," Darryl said, standing. "Give me 10 minutes and the number."
He left the room with the notes from Kat's "research" and returned a bare five minutes later.
"Easy as pie. Here you go," he handed a scrap of paper to Kat.
"Are you sure this is it?" Marc asked.
"100%. Why?"
"Well, it's the house just down the beach from here. You can see it from the path."
"Great, let's go."
"Whoa there," Jade laughed. "We need a plan of action."
"That's easy. I'll go and knock on the door and say I got enough data this afternoon, and was she still interested in buying the rod, sell it to her for $10.00, accidentally touch her with it again, then "leave". You four, Amphitrite, Pan and Bree will be spaced around the house, then as soon as I'm out of sight, we'll cast the banishing ritual, and they'll be gone."
There was a moment's silence.
"That's actually a pretty good plan."
"Let's go then!"
"Let's call the others, shall we?"
"Oh... Yeah, ok."

Kat swayed up to the front door, twirling the baton. Amphitrite had arrived first, saying she'd be on her way as soon as the ritual was complete. Poseidon had found out she was there, and was on his way, so naturally, she was on her way, away from him. The only reason she hadn't already left was her vow to help them. Pan had arrived next, and said that once the ritual was over, he'd go and visit the nymphs in the next county, to let them know it was safe to return to Woodlands. Bree was the last to arrive, and with her arrival they had walked the kilometre to the demon's lair, and established their positions at the eight points of the compass. This meant that one of them was in full sight of the house, being on the beach, but Pan declared that he would simply face away from the house, and pretend he hadn't noticed it. Kat had her position prepared, and she'd go there as soon as she'd gotten rid of the golden rod. She pressed the doorbell and stepped back. She was just about to press the bell again, when the door opened, and Kat was confronted with her mythology lecturer, whom was also Jade's Philosophy lecturer.
"Can I help you? Miss Thornhill, wasn't it?"
"Oh, is Sophie in? I didn't know she was your... partner."
"We don't like to advertise it. What was it about?"
"Oh, she said she wanted to buy this off me," Kat replied, brandishing the rod and "accidentally" touching it to his hand.
"Ow! You shocked me."
"Oops, I'm sorry. That's funny. It must have gathered some static electricity, it's humming a bit. It didn't do that to anyone else. Are you alright?"
"Fine," he said tersely.
Just then, the demon approached the door.
"Oh, it's you."
"Sophie, hi," Kat smiled brightly. "I just wondered if you were still interested in the rod. I got so much data this afternoon it's going to take a couple of days to encode it, so if you still want it, it's yours for a tenner."
"Oh, great, yeah, I'm interested. Darling, do you have $10?"
The demon held out her hands for the rod, and Kat struggled to suppress a smile as she placed the rod into her hands. The demon winced, slightly.
"Oh did it shock you too? I'm so sorry, it must have gathered some static electricity when I was swinging it around."
As her lecturer handed her $10, Kat smiled.
"Was there a case for it?" the demon asked.
"Oh, no. It just came like that. I suppose you could wrap it in some velvet or something so it wouldn't get scratched, but to be honest, I wasn't all that bothered. It was only for the experiment. Hope you have fun with it! See you in class," she added to the professor.
Kat turned and started down the driveway. She had to force herself not to run as soon as the door closed. When she reached the spot where she was no longer visible, Kat started hurrying to her position.
Right, I'm in position. And I got both of them to touch the rod. Can everyone hear me?
There was an affirmative from each of Jade, Marc, Cole and KatE, and Bree and Tim were both thinking "yes" hard. Kat looked towards Darryl's position, and waved at him. He waved back. Counting down with both her fingers and her mind, Kat began the count-down to the start of the banishing ritual.
All ready? Commencing ritual in five... four... three...two...one... begin.
As one, the eight of them began whispering the ritual that would banish the demons back to their hell dimension. The circle was cast and the banishment began. Kat could see in her mind the demon and her consort within the house, stripped of their powers. Then she was caught up in the ritual, and felt the minds of Jade, Marc, Darryl, Cole, KatE Tim and Bree swirling around with hers. And then, the ritual ended, and she came back to her body with a thump.
Did it work? Jade asked.
Only one way to find out Kat replied, getting unsteadily to her feet.
They met at the front door, and Kat knocked again.
"That took us 40 minutes," Darryl whispered. "It didn't feel that long."
"It often doesn't," Tim replied, as Kat knocked again.
Marc reached past her and tried the knob, and they were all surprised when the door opened easily.
"And who says the age of trust is dead," Kat quipped.
"Of course, anyone who accidentally wanders into a demon's den has rocks in their head," Jade replied as they entered.

Together, they made a quick tour of the house, and it didn't take them long to discover the bodies of the professor and a scorched mark on the floor.
"There's no body for the girl," Pan remarked in surprise.
"No, she wasn't actually in human form."
"Is he really dead?" Bree asked.
"Yes, he's really dead," Marc replied.
"How can you tell without checking?"
"He's the God of life, darling," Kat replied. "Now all that remains is to return this to its rightful owner."
Kat picked up the rod, and handed it to Tim.
"And to find the lovely chains that hold Ptah's immortality."
Pan and Amphitrite both blanched.
"They're somewhere in this house?"
"I hope so," Marc replied. "How else am I going to find them?"
"You're going to touch them?" Amphitrite exclaimed, in horror.
"That's what I'm for," Darryl replied. "Look at this."
Tim and Jade both turned their attention to the parchment Darryl was holding.
"What is it?"
"It looks like human skin," Tim replied, taking the parchment as Darryl dropped it. "Human skin is very fragile," he scolded. "Hmm..."
"What does it say?" Kat asked.
"I believe it's their plan of attack. It seems your theory was right. They were going to lure Marc here by failing him in Philosophy, then offering extra credit for a weekend study group here." Tim snorted. "It says here that he was going to tell Marc that he didn't really need the extra credit, he'd still pass based on his previous grades, but the extra credit would lift his overall mark, and the girl wouldn't come alone, and would fail without it."
"Would that have worked?" Jade asked.
"Probably," Marc admitted. "What else does it say?"
"That you'd be kept in the basement, and - well, I'm sure you get the idea," Tim replied, glancing at Kat.
"And they just wrote out their whole plan for us to find?"
"There are stupid demons just as there are stupid humans. It goes on to say that once the baby had been born, they'd kill Marc and let Kat find him, get the babe to open the door and bring in some demons."
"Not all of them?"
"No, not all. They assume that Kat will start destroying things when she finds Ptah, and that Jade will be trying to calm her down. Once Jade has stopped Kat from destroying the world, then they'll bring in the rest of the hoard."
Jade looked startled.
"So they were using me for their plan?"
"They thought you would have stopped Kat from destroying the whole world, so there would still be enough for them to use."
"Would there have been any people left on it?"
"It's not clear, but I imagine so. What else would they eat?"
Darryl gagged a little.
"Hmm. I guess I would try and save them. I don't know."
"Well, fortunately, we'll never know."
Tim tossed the parchment onto the professor's body.
"Is there anything else we need from here?" Darryl asked.
"Just the chains."
Amphitrite looked up.
"I'm going to go. I can feel him approaching."
"Of course. Thank you for your help."
"You're welcome."
Without waiting for any further goodbyes, KatE left the house, and hurried down the stairs towards the beach. The others started the search for the chains, which were eventually discovered in the basement, where the parchment stated Marc would have been kept.
"To get you in the mood, do you think?" Darryl joked, pointing at the torture implements that decorated the room.
Marc simply shuddered. Cole looked furious.
"That is nymph blood on those implements," he thundered.
"And human," Marc replied. "I guess this was their dining room."
This time, Bree gagged as well.
"Is there anything else we need from here?" Darryl asked, holding the chains.
There was a chorus of negatives.
"Then let's get out of here, before I throw up."
They left the basement and headed out the front. Kat hesitated a second, then hurried into the bedroom, where the body lay. She looked around the room, then reached into the professor's pocket. She smiled as she found the cigarettes, and placed one between his yellowed fingers. She flicked her wrist slightly.
"Oops."
"Kat."
Jade stood in the doorway. Kat turned guilty eyes towards her.
"Oh, alright."
Kat lifted a hand, but Jade held up her own hand in a "wait" gesture.
"He should know that smoking kills."
They laughed together then, and left the house, the cigarette smouldering on the bedspread.

They wiped Bree's memory of the whole occasion - it was safer that way. Pan left to tell the nymphs that it was safe to return, and Tim started his return journey to the temple almost immediately. Kat knew that wasn't all Pan would be doing when he reached the nymph's woods, but simply shared a grin with Marc. With Darryl holding the chains, and Marc standing within a circle, Kat and Jade performed their final ritual for the day. As the chains disintegrated and Ptah's immortality returned, Marc took his true form for the first time in his lifetime. As soon as he was no longer mortal, the ritual that had summoned Kat to human form was broken, and she returned to her true form as well. The light was blinding, and Darryl had his eyes shut tight.
"Jade. Are you staying mortal?"
"For the rest of his life, yes."
Kat smiled.
"I'm glad."
"Are you staying?"
Kat looked at Marc.
"I don't think so. We have a lot of catching up to do. We'll visit, of course."
"Of course."
"Until next time."
"There is one thing."
"Yes?"
"The taint?"
"We'll take care of it before we go."
"Have fun."
"And you."
And then Kat and Marc were gone.

***

Jade and Darryl sat on the patio with a drink and a tray of nibbles. They had swept up the remains of the chains and scattered them into the ocean, then as night fell, when the smoke from the demon's house became visible, Darryl had called the fire brigade. It had taken them all night to put the fire out, and by the time they'd managed, there was barely anything left. The discovery of the bodies of several missing girls buried in the basement meant that nobody had much sympathy for the university lecturer who had fallen asleep while smoking in bed, and the house was flattened and the land put up for sale. It had been bought, rumor was, by a young couple from out of town, who planned to build a new property on the site.

The taint was gone, and the nymphs had returned. Jade and Darryl had received a brief visit from one of them, with a gift of thanks from the nymphs in the form of garden care. The gardens around their house were the best in the county. That was the other interesting thing - it seemed that as a parting gift, Marc's name on all the legal documents pertaining to ownership of houses, property and cars had been changed to Jade's. Jade smiled as she watched the sun slip towards the water, the sky painted a brilliant red. The moon was in the sky, a half crescent glowing in the glorious sunset. Kat seemed to make a special effort for them, whenever they were sat outside.
"Jade."
Jade looked away from the sunset, towards Darryl.
"Yes?"
"I have something I need to ask you."
"What's that?"
He produced a simple platinum band from his pocket.
"Will you marry me?"
"Oh, Endymion. Yes, of course it's yes."
He slipped the band onto her finger, and they embraced as the sun gently kissed the waves.
Just then, from the beach, there was a call, and Darryl and Jade broke apart, and moved to the railing.
"Hello?"
"Hi there!" the girl called, as she and the man she was with took their call as an invitation to come up the path.
They stood together at the top of the path, framed by the sun as it sunk slowly into the sea. He wore black jeans and a white shirt, and his dark hair, skin and eyes gave him a dramatic look. She wore a short back skirt and a red top, with dangly gold earrings that reflected the light. Her hair was short - barely to her ears - but it glowed red-gold in the sunset. Jade smiled, as she felt her skin gently glowing through her glamour.
"Just thought we'd introduce ourselves. I'm Kat, and this is Peter. We're your new neighbours."
As the sun finally finished its slide into the ocean and the moon ruled the sky, the four of them laughed into the night.