Dave was so full he thought his stomach might explode. The Chinese food had been really good, which explained why the place had been so packed. He yawned, feeling an irresistible sense of exhaustion. Although it was mid-morning here, it was well past midnight according to his West Coast American internal clock.

  The morning had gone from relatively normal temperatures to extremely humid and sweltering. The sky was nothing but a thick blanket of gray, which threatened to rain at any moment. Their clothes stuck to them and they sweated freely. Everyone had doffed whatever clothing they could, Scott grimacing in his flouncy poet’s shirt that clung to his skinny body. He looked like a pirate from a college play. His hair stuck to his forehead and sweat dripped into his eyes.

  They’d gone several blocks before Scott stopped them, spotting the steep concrete wall of a park topped with thick trees. There was a stair up into the green sanctuary. “Hey. Let’s head up there; looks like a place to lay low for the day to me.”

  Nobody argued. They just wanted to sleep, and a park sounded fine for that.

  “How long do you think it will take Madrik to bring the others?” Charis asked. She was holding Dave’s hand.

  “God knows,” Miradon yawned so big he could have put his fist inside.

  Climbing a steel stair, they ascended the concrete cliff that defended the park from the city streets. The view from the top of the cliff wasn’t terribly impressive; they saw a thin strip of lawn between a line of thick trees and bushes around the park’s edge, and a tall concrete wall separating them from what appeared to be a well-cared-for and beautiful garden on the other side. At least it was an abandoned sort of spot. Looking to the right, Dave thought he could see another stair coming up from the sidewalk and a concrete bathroom building. It looked filthy. He was glad they weren’t too close to it.

  “Nice,” he said flatly.

  “Nap time,” Scott said, wadded up his jacket and lay down in the dead leaves under the trees. The others swiftly followed suit. They could hear the screaming of exotic birds and lorikeets from nearby. The sky rumbled with distant, quiet thunder.

  “It’s going to rain,” Dave warned.

  Nobody listened to him. In moments they were on the ground and sleeping.

  He sighed, shrugged, and lay down by Charis trying to stay awake as the guard. She snuggled against him, laying her head on his arm. He yawned so wide that his jaw creaked and knew he wouldn’t last very long in a prone position, so he sat halfway up feeling exceptionally grumpy. Didn’t these people care about sound military tactics at all? He knew from the movies that you always set a guard when people are sleeping.

  But there was something else he had to do. After a big meal and a big soft drink, he started eying the beckoning bathroom as he realized he hadn’t gone in quite a while.

  Dave carefully removed his arm from under Charis’s head, and sneaked away to explore the public toilet or—since this was China after all—find a convenient bush. Somehow it didn’t surprise him when he passed Mike semi-transparent standing guard nearby listening to an old 80’s walkman. Mike waved to Dave with a smile. Dave didn’t question why he could now seek Mike, and kept walking. He was too tired for metaphysics right now.

  Indigo and the other guardian angels were nowhere to be seen, probably roaming.

  On the way, Dave noticed various other half-invisible guardians, random demon-frogs, and one Wolf Man roaming the sidewalks. Most of them were down below on the city street, not up where they were in the trees. That was a good thing. He did his best to avoid being noticed by the frogs — the idea of a demon mafia ring was unsettling.

  Entering the smelly concrete bathroom building, he growled “Get out of here before I step on you,” to a little frog demon who was hanging about in the odious hut. He noticed weird cockroach men on the far wall, and rats… one looked at him with glowing yellow eyes. He was too tired for all of it and completely ignored them.

  The frog monster and most of the rest took flight at the sight of him and found a hole in the floor that was supposed to be a toilet. He unzipped, letting loose as soon as possible. He sighed, thanking God who had given him a nearby toilet and a cute girlfriend. God is good, he thought. Next, God could prove he was a super great guy by delivering Dave to a clean hotel with a big soft bed.

  Dave was almost finished when Indigo suddenly ran into the toilet stall after him. “Dave! You have to get out of here!”

  David Tolin almost punched him, startled and angry. “What?! Get the fuck out of the stall! You creeper!”

  Indigo grabbed him by the shoulder at the same instant that they both heard the squealing of brakes and the shouting of men. It wasn’t the playful kind of shouting, but the militant ‘cops are here’ kind.

  Dave felt his blood run cold, finished in a hurry and zipped his pants. “Where’s the others?”

  “Still asleep! Don’t go outside!” Indigo shouted as Dave headed for the door. The semi-translucent dark blue guardian jumped in front of him to stop him.

  Dave backed up in surprise. “Whoa, mer-boy, watch it!”

  “I’m not like Inu, I’m only half Ssaya! I’m Enshi!”

  “Whatever. What’s happening?”

  Indigo peeked out of the door. A park tourist holding the hand of his little son entered the restroom right at that moment, walking right through Indigo and stopping to glare at Dave who blocked his path. David skittered out of the way and Indigo completely ignored the guy. Giving the rude white dude a steady glare, the tourist headed for the stalls.

  There were a few more shouts and what sounded like a few little firecrackers. Dave had seen enough war movies to know they were probably silenced gunshots.

  The man with his son gasped, running out of the stall with huge eyes, alarmed.

  Dave couldn’t wait. He skirted around the anxious Indigo and burst into the humid muggy daylight. Thunder pealed, much closer now. Along the rim of the little park he saw men running up the stair from the street below, some of them pitch black shadow forms with wings. The black guys were fighting and grappling with various guardian angels, which were almost visible now. One of the humans had a frog-demon on his shoulder who was pointing to the swiftly waking group.

  Before Scott could pull his five-bladed disc weapon from its leather sheath on his belt he was tackled and handcuffed. One of the cops pulled out a sword—an actual sword—and so did Miradon, literally out of nowhere. They fought until two other cops tackled the tall gray-haired shifter and took him down.

  “Charis–” Dave gasped, hearing her squeal as she tried to kick at the invaders.

  “NO!” Indigo shoved him back physically, right into the bathroom. The Chinese man stared at him with an odd look, but Dave couldn’t spare him the attention.

  “Stay here or you’ll be in the vans too! Don’t worry, they can handle themselves…”

  “What the fuck is out there?!”

  “THEM,” Indigo said with a grimace and a flash of his white, pointy teeth.

  “Them. You people said you could deal with Them, but it doesn’t sound like that’s what’s going on!” Dave made a rush for the door again, pushing past invisible boy. “Get out of the way, man, they might need help!”

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  There was a brief struggle. The local man with his little boy gaped, astonished that the crazy white dude seemed to be fighting with nothing. Dave couldn’t care less. “That sounds like flesh and blood people, not demons! Charis and the others don’t even have guns! Or baseball bats! Or police badges! Does their magic mojo even WORK on normal people?!”

  The man and his son glanced outside, saw that he had a chance while the cops were busy, and ran for his life to get away from Dave.

  Finally Dave broke away from Indigo who seemed to be weakening steadily. Evidently he couldn’t keep manifesting physically without getting tired, it seemed to take a lot out of him. Dave pushed past him and broke for the door, determined to rescue Charis.

  “Idiot!” Indigo screamed, running after him. “When a guardian angel tells you to lay low, DO IT! Jesus Christ! You’ll just get yourself captured too!”

  “You’re a total fuckup as a guardian angel, aren’t you supposed to be guarding Charis? The gorgeous girl out there, where people are shooting guns?!” Dave yelled over his shoulder as he escaped the loo.

  “SHE sent ME! I am supposed to be keeping you from getting kidnapped by the Yakuza, you idiot!”

  Indigo tackled Dave’s ankles just outside the threshold, planting the human’s chin in the grass. He dragged his prize swiftly behind a bush to hide him.

  “Get off, Blue! God, you’re grabby for a guy who isn’t even physical!”

  “You can’t do anything to help them you dip shit! Believe me, the worst thing you could do right now is get captured! They’ll be safe enough! The Yakuza will probably ransom them! They won’t do that to you, they’ll just kill you and harvest your Mantle, you fool!”

  Dave peeked through the leaves to see his friends dragged backward kicking and struggling. Some of the Chinese guys were in cop uniforms, others were wearing cheesy silk suits. They threw everyone into police vans and slammed the doors.

  “Oh SHIT.” Dave jackknifed to his feet. “Let’s go!”

  “What are you going to do? They’re mafia! They have guns! Charis sent me to keep you away from these guys!” Indigo looked furious and determined, leaping after Dave again. He pulled a huge black sword out of nowhere, as if he’d carried it naked on his back. “I swear to God, if I have to I’ll…”

  Finally Dave hesitated. The blue dude was absolutely right. Mean Chinese men with semi-automatic weapons were bad, and Dave didn’t even have his gun. Or his last bullet. What did he have? He had the clothes on his back. He had his brain. “Think, Dave. Think!”

  Seeing that Dave wasn’t going to go running off just now, Indigo put the sword away simply by putting it behind his back (and where in hell did it go anyway?) and dragged Dave into the bushes, hiding him. “Just hold on. Wait.”

  “What do Chinese mafia want with demon-busters who work for saints? Why would they kidnap them? How did they even know we were here?” Dave shot the questions off rapid fire, more than a little desperate.

  Then he heard it. The voice.

  THAT voice.

  ‘David…’

  It was a huge, ugly, sewer rat right by his foot in the bushes.

  “UGH!” Dave kicked at it. “You have got to be kidding me! My own personal dog-humping demon, all the way in China! No. This can’t be happening.”

  Indigo hollered a true Irlus-style battle cry and went after the rat with his sword, with a definite gleam of insane joy to his eyes. Meanwhile, unable to hear the invisible guy battling the rat, the vans peeled out and took off.

  The dark blue angel chased the rat which was running for its life. They vanished into the trees and Dave could hear Blue yelling something like “You shall not report back to them that he is escaped, you filthy repulsive excuse for a…”

  Dave turned his back on Indigo’s rat-slaying, looking back out at the vans which were vanishing onto the street now. He didn’t think. He just started running. After them.

  Five steps later he saw something in the grass where the group had slept, tossed aside, upside-down. Dusty’s skateboard. Dave grinned wildly. He was from Los Angeles. Skateboards were more common than bicycles on his college campus, they even had skateboard racks for them. He veered just slightly, snatching it up off the ground and sprinting toward the street at his best catch-that-mugger speed.

  As soon as his wanna-be-converse slapped asphalt, the board clattered to the ground and he jumped on, kicking for all he was worth. He dodged through the crowds, knocking people over, swerving into traffic to steal a move from the eighties classic movies— bumper-surfing. It’s amazing what stupid crazy young men can accomplish when a cute girl is in trouble. He grabbed a taxi, ignored people yelling in Chinese, and stole speed. Although the roads were rough, somehow the skateboard didn’t wobble or chatter. It was as solid as if it were on perfectly smooth concrete.

  As soon as the Taxi started slowing down Dave let go and drifted, leaning right, swerving in behind a tiny red car. He grabbed the back bumper. Ahead, he could still see the vans. The red car slowed swiftly as they came to a crosswalk and people and bicycles crowded past.

  “Shit! No!” He took a chance and broke left before the car came to a stop, using the momentum to head straight for a long staircase alley with a metal rail. It was perfect, beautiful, and although he hadn’t slid down a rail in almost ten years, he didn’t hesitate. He kicked the back of the ‘board and jumped.

  Sparks, a gorgeous slide, smooth as butter and he’d never had better balance. The skateboard responded like magic. Maybe it WAS magic.

  He came down perfectly, impressed anew with his teenage skills (or was it the skateboard?) and looked for the vans. He could barely see them in traffic far ahead where this road joined the other. They were getting away.

  Panting, Dave finally came to a halt, drifting until he dropped his foot and stopped. He was out of breath, sweaty, and totally lost. He’d just done the coolest thing he’d ever done in his life, and it was all wasted.

  “Shit!”

  After a minute Indigo ran up to him at full Guardian speed (which was really fast), gasping for breath. “Damn it, Dave!” Indigo yelled, “What the hell are you doing?”

  Dave turned in a circle, looking for any sign of the vans, but they were long gone. “Shit shit shit!”

  He saw short people. A whole sea of little people. He smelled the stink of sweat, the constant jabbering of alien language, heard the roll of insistent thunder. It was going to rain any min…

  …it started raining. Hard. Like a warm shower. Straight down on him. Dave had never felt more out of place in his life.

  “Idiot!” the Guardian yelled again, skidding to a stop beside him. “That is DUSTY’S board!”

  “I lost them, Blue,” Dave whimpered, feeling like crying. “Please tell me you have a magic sea person guardian angel power and can snap your fingers and know where Charis is.”

  “No, but YOU can!” Indigo looked at him with a scowl, expectantly.

  Dave stared at him without comprehension. “I just kissed her a couple of times! That doesn’t make us bonded spirits or something!”

  Indigo grabbed him and turned him around by his shoulders, pointing him in the direction the vans had gone. “Turn it on! Come on, use that blasted Mantle that’s gotten us into this mess! LOOK! Use it!”

  Dave glanced around wildly. He didn’t want to see God again, but he looked. Up. Past the buildings, past the dangerously overhanging air conditioner units, squinting in case he caught even the slightest flash of the Big Man Upstairs. He did NOT need to be blind right now. “What the hell am I looking for? I don’t think they’re up there! Do you want me to ask God for directions or something?!”

  “Look for something, anything, dark, evil, greasy, black, something out there…” he pointed vaguely toward the city. Thankfully they were on a little bit of a hill. Dave shaded his eyes from the torrential downpour and saw a bay, water, boats, and docks. He recognized that bay. One moment of sparkling happiness at knowing where he was instantly curdled into frustration. It had to be Hong Kong.

  “Ohhhh… crap. Crap! Now I know where I am! Damn it, Indigo! Now I’m not lost!”

  Indigo slapped himself on the forehead in utter frustration. “Would you just LOOK??”

  “I’m looking! Hong Kong! Great, freaking beautiful! And the big weird thing in the sun, and little zipping guys with horns and scrolls and…” he trailed off, staring into the distance, where a great big worm was coming down out of the sky. “… and what the hell is that?”

  “What? What do you see? Do you see something useful? (For once…)” Indigo trailed off into grumbling.

  “You wouldn’t happen to know what a big gray worm made out of shadows and bad light is when it snakes down out of the sky and looks like a twister looking for a landing site, would you?”

  Indigo stared at him, face totally blank.

  “It isn’t good, whatever it is.” Dave dropped his skate board back onto the ground, putting a foot on it. “Nope. It definitely has demonic looks. What are the odds that the evil gray twister isn’t connected to a demonic kidnapping?” He started moving.

  Indigo stopped him, grabbing his arm. “What the hell are you doing? That is Dusty’s board!”

  “Yeah.” Dave snarled impatiently. “And? Right now I don’t think he’d mind me borrowing it, Blue!”

  Indigo rolled his eyes. “This is DUSTY’S BOARD,” he repeated, louder, like Dave was stupid. “That means it has special powers! Now hold on!” Indigo pointed at the board, and it suddenly started floating.

  “Hold on to what? It’s a skateboard!” Dave screamed.

  “Balance!”

  “HOLY SHIT!” Dave instantly squatted, grabbing the board with both hands.

  Indigo started floating. Of course he wasn’t totally physical, but mostly transparent… evidently floating came with the territory. With a huge fanged grin from Indigo, skateboard and dude along with ghost-angel started to literally fly down the street. People all around them gasped, yelled, and pointed. Clearly Dave and the skateboard were very visible.

  “What are you doing! What the hell are you making this innocent deck do!” Dave shrieked like a little girl.

  “Wooo-hoooo!” Indigo laughed. “Go baby go!”

  “Ahhhhhhhh!” Dave started to sweat all over again, despite the pouring rain. Speed was good, he told himself. Bypassing traffic was good. But holy shit!

  “I don’t like heights!”

  “This is no innocent skateboard, David my man, this is Dusty’s ride! He spent the last ten years bribing half of the Artificing department to trick it out for him! He’s elogicked this thing out so bad it can probably talk!”