"Just use it!"

The demon suddenly kicked up his legs, twisting at the same time, pulling Theo to the floor where the two of them wrestled inside the circle.

I parked my hands on my hips. "I doubt rain is going to do anything but make him more slippery to hold. Ow. That had to hurt. Um. Noelle, can you help us?"

Her voice came out of the shadows, filled with regret. "I am the proctor. I cannot assist you in any way or the trial would be void."

"Portia, use your damned powers!" Theo demanded. He was sitting on the demon, who was pinned to the floor, but writhing with what looked like incredible strength. The demon bit Theo on the wrist, drawing blood.

I raised my hands, letting them fall helplessly. There was nothing in the room I could use as a weapon. "I don't know how!" I finally admitted, unsure of what I could do to help Theo. Even if this was all a figment of my distraught imagination, I didn't want to see Theo hurt. "How do I use weather to defeat someone?"

"Gather it up and direct it at the demon." Theo's voice was garbled as the demon slammed his head into Theo's thorax, his arms and legs thrashing wildly. Theo was holding him down as best he could, but it was evident that, sooner or later, Theo's strength was going to give out and the demon would have the upper hand.

"That's impossible! No one can do that!"

"Oh dear. I'm afraid this is getting out of hand. I am authorized to stop the trial if it's clear that the test subject is not in control," Noelle said, taking a step out of the shadows. She had a notebook in her hand and was making notes.

"You must do this!" Theo snarled, his face bloody. "Now! One more failure and it's all over!"

I took a deep breath, made an apology to what I hoped was a still sane part of my brain, and concentrated on gathering up weather.

"I'll see you in Abaddon," Theo swore to the demon as the monstrous teen used both hands to claw him, his shirt coming away in shreds to reveal long, bloody streaks. "Do something, woman!"

"Weather, weather, weather," I said hurriedly to myself, wringing my hands as the teen continued to slash at Theo, his demonic mouth open in a wordless snarl, his eyes filled with hatred. "What is weather? It's rain and wind and snow. It's particles of water suspended in the air. It's atomic elements, protons, electrons, neutrons, gluons, positive and negative charges, electrical charges…" The word electrical glowed in my mind with an intensity that blinded me to all other thoughts. "It's lightning. Lightning is electrically charged, superheated air that is released in tremendous blasts of energy—"

I closed my eyes, holding out my hands, allowing myself to feel what I was thinking. "Energy is the ability to do work."

My fingertips tingled.

"Portia!"

"Work is force times distance, which is also kinetic energy."

Around me, tiny little motes of static electricity gathered, as if I was summoning it to me.

"I'm going to have to call this," Noelle said in a sympathetic voice. "I can't let the demon get out of control. I'm so sorry."

"You've got to do something!"

I kept my eyes shut despite the plea in Theo's voice, imagining myself pulling from the stone and earth and air surrounding us the electrical charges that existed in all atoms. "Kinetic energy can be transformed into potential energy."

"Gargh!"

I opened my eyes to see the demon on top of Theo, ripping with long, vicious swipes at his arms and chest. Around me, the air glowed blue with static, the hairs on my arms standing on end.

"I'm sorry, I must stop—" Noelle started forward toward the circle.

"Now!" Theo demanded, interrupting her.

"And potential energy can be converted into the physical form known as electricity!" I yelled, slamming the power that surrounded me into the demon. As the blue light burst into the demon's body, it threw him backward against the wall, a deafening clap of thunder bursting forth in the crypt. I shouted an oath and covered my ears, throwing myself onto the floor next to Theo. The floor cracked, the walls screamed with the echo of the thunderclap, while dust and small pieces of rock rained down from the stone ceiling. I crawled over to Theo, trying to shield his head from any falling objects. He was crumpled in a heap, filthy with dirt and blood, but alive.

"Oh, that's not good," Noelle said from the other side of the room, where she'd gone to look at the demon.

"Are you all right?" I asked Theo, propping him up on my lap in order to gently wipe blood and debris from his face. "Are you hurt badly? You're bleeding a lot. I should call a paramedic."

"Erm…Portia…I'm afraid there's a situation here," Noelle said from where she squatted next to the wall.

I ignored her as I peeled back the shredded remains of Theo's shirt. "Sweet mother! We have to get you to a hospital."

Theo grabbed my arm as I was about to leap to my feet, not sure of where I was going to go for assistance, but driven to getting him help. "I'm all right, Portia. The wounds are not fatal."

"Your chest is torn to shreds," I started to say, but at that moment, Theo turned his head. I had pulled him up slightly, and his head was resting on my chest. He eyed the breast that was a scant millimeter from his mouth.

"I heal quickly." It was just three words, but my nipples tightened with the feeling of his breath on the thin silk that was the only thing separating my flesh from his mouth.

"That's…you're speaking into my breast," I said, oddly loathe to move.

"Yes, yes I am," he said, his eyes fixed with fascination as my nipple hardened even more, little waves of heat rippling outward from my breast across my chest before heading downward to pool in my stomach…and locations further south. "I'd like to do other things to it, but now is not the time or place."

The air in the room seemed to evaporate into nothing. "There's going to be a time and place?" I asked, inwardly wincing at the moronic question, but unable to keep from asking.

"I fervently hope so," he said before looking down at his own chest.

It took me a moment to wrestle my mind from the images of just what I'd like Theo to do to my breasts, but the sight of his chest healing before my startled eyes did a lot to bring me down to earth.

"That's…that's impossible," I said, reaching out to touch a long welt which had been a deep gash just a few minutes before. His flesh was hot, fever-hot, radiating heat that indicated a lot of energy was being used to heal his wounds. "This is…it's…it's just not possible!"

"Welcome to Wonderland, Alice," he said with a smile that stripped the air from my lungs, and left my heart racing.

Life as I knew it ceased to exist. Life as I never believed possible began.

"This is real, isn't it?" I asked, gently touching another now-healed welt. As I watched, several more scratches merged together, healing to thick, raised patches that melted away into smooth flesh after a few minutes. "All of this is real. I'm not insane."

Theo sat up as the last wound disappeared. His eyes expressed mingled pity and an unexpected sadness. "No, you're not insane."

"Then you're…"

"A nephilim. Immortal."

I swallowed hard. "And I'm…"

"A virtue. Soon to be immortal, as well, once you are accepted into the Court of Divine Blood." He got to his feet, and pulled me to mine, holding onto my hands.

It was too much, too much to take in at once. I shook my head, not at what Theo was saying, but at the fact that my brain was trying to process all this new information so quickly.

I just couldn't believe it was real…and yet, finally, I admitted to myself that the evidence piled up indisputably pointed to one conclusion: everything I had believed impossible, everything I knew could simply not be, now suddenly was. It was as if a whole new part of life opened up before me, beckoning me to go forth and explore all the mysteries it had to share.