We had just gotten inside the house when Alice handed both me and Erin a small envelope. ~These contain your PDA registration cards; you should keep them in your purses with your Driver’s License and other identification so that you always have them on hand.~

I opened my envelope as Erin was doing the same to find a laminated business card that said, Werehouse Imports and Exports: Customer Loyalty Card. It also had my name, photo, and a customer number, which I assumed must be the registration number used to identify me. Erin laughed as she looked at hers. “Very low profile, does this mean we get a discount?”

Alice nodded as she answered, ~Yes. Registered Paranormals get to buy anything in the warehouse at just a little bit above cost.~

“Really?” Erin asked, her eyebrows rising in interest. “That’s pretty cool.” Then she placed her card in her purse, and I followed suit.

“Why did we have to register as Paranormals anyway? Are these cards used to track us or something?” I asked suspiciously. “You know, in case we go bad, or do something illegal?”

The tinkling of bells in my mind once again signaled the Mermaid’s giggling. ~Don’t be silly, the registration cards just help us keep track of the number, and various types of local Paranormals who want to blend in with human society and live normal lives. It lets us better serve their needs by knowing what services may be needed here. We hardly ever have to go after a registered Paranormal for anything more than a slap on the wrist offense. It’s the non-registered ones like your Demon friends that we need to watch out for, since generally they don’t want to blend in, or they have something to hide. Those are the ones that usually cause enough trouble that we need to seal or Hunt them.~

I breathed a sigh of relief that I wasn’t considered dangerous or something. “What does the PDA do with the bad ones? Are there some sort of Paranormal prisons out there?”

~For minor offenses on less powerful humanoid Paranormals, we use a minor seal, it’s kind of like a minimum-security prison sentence since they’re stuck as regular humans with no special abilities,~ Alice explained. ~Full seals are much harder to do and generally require having something important to the one being sealed. You can never know what that something is, though, so we can’t use those often in the field. I’m guessing it only worked on your grandfather because his son’s blood was used, and your mother sacrificed her life to use enough power to do it.~

I nodded thoughtfully as I followed what she was saying. “So, what do you do with the bad ones that you can’t use a seal on then?”

The Mermaid shrugged her shoulders. ~ A minor seal can be used on them if they willingly submit to it. That’s what the Hunter teams are for. They are trained in detective work, and usually, each team member has a different specialty. They track down the offender and ask them to come peacefully and submit to a minor seal. Ninety-five percent of the time, they don’t.~

“And when they don’t? What happens then?” Erin asked with a grimace that said she probably had a pretty good guess already.

~Then the Hunt is on, and the team takes them down by whatever means are necessary,~ she replied sadly. ~In the case of murderers or extremely violent offenders, they don’t bother with asking nicely, they just Hunt them.~

“And you want to do that for a living?!” I asked incredulously.

~Think about all those humans out there, blissfully unaware of our existence, just like you were yesterday,~ the very pretty Mermaid pointed out. ~They are better off if they don’t know about us, and we’re better off that way too. Many of them would think of us as monsters if they knew about us, even those of us who just want to live a normal life. The ones that the PDA Hunt are the real monsters, those who prey on humans or who would reveal us to the world for their own ends. We have to Hunt the predators to keep their prey safe. Sure, it’s not a very nice job, but if somebody doesn’t do it, the world will fall into chaos, and in chaos, everybody gets hurt.~

“Wow, you’re really serious about this, aren’t you?” Erin said in awe.

Alice’s cheeks flushed in embarrassment, making the punk girl look vulnerable for a moment, not to mention very cute. ~Sorry, I didn’t mean to get so preachy, but yes, I am serious. I’ve been learning about guns from my dad and working hard on getting better with Water magic. The PDA has a training program for those interested in joining them, and I’m hoping to be assigned to the crime lab to learn forensics.~

“Maybe Raven should join you, with her strength and new abilities, she’d make one hell of a monster hunter,” Erin said with a laugh.

“Yeah, right,” I scoffed, “how is that living a normal life? I can just see myself on dates. ‘So, what do you do for a living?’ ‘Oh, nothing special, I hunt monsters for a covert government agency, it’s not nearly as interesting as accounting.’ What do Hunters tell people anyway?”

~Mostly they say they work in the import and export business, it saves the PDA from having to print different business cards,~ Alice retorted with a musical giggle.

“Of course, how silly of me,” I said with a groan, though her giggling did make me crack a smile. The sound of footsteps racing down the stairs stopped me from saying anything more until a seven-year-old girl barreled into me for a hug, and I let out an “Oomph.”

“Raven, I’m so happy you’re back!” Lydia exclaimed as she let go of me to give me a stern look and waggled her finger at me. “Never worry me like that again, young lady.” Her look had changed slightly from when we had left in the morning. Her hair was a slightly lighter shade of blonde, and her romper was now rose-colored instead of denim, but it still had the prominently displayed middle finger. Her appearance, combined with the stern look and the chastisement, sent us all into a fit of giggles.

“Thanks, Lydia, I needed a good laugh,” I said once I could speak again, “and I’m sorry for worrying you.”

The Imp grinned at me and replied, “I had considered saying ‘Mommy, why did you leave me all alone?’ just for the shock value, but I’ll save that for when you have company that doesn’t know me.” Then she gestured to the room around us. “Anyway, Alice has only seen the living room and the foyer here, and I think Erin hasn’t gone much further than the guest room, so how about a tour of your new home, girls? I just finished preparing things for you.”

“You actually do housework in that form?” Erin asked in disbelief as we followed the Imp up the stairs to the second floor.

“Oh sure,” Lydia replied as she led us up the stairs. “It takes a bit longer to do certain things, but I‘m more comfortable this way.”

“Yeah, I can see how it would make things take longer; shorter reach, less strength, and shorter legs, just to name a few things,” Erin replied.

“That, and I can’t resist jumping on the beds after I make them when I’m like this, so I end up having to make them again.” I wasn’t quite sure if she was joking or not, but I tried not to pay it much mind as she began the tour. “The door on the right is the master bedroom, which is, of course, Raven’s room. It has its own bathroom, so she doesn’t have to fight with the two of you for the main bathroom on the ground floor. The first door on the left will be Alice’s room, beyond that is my room, and then the linen closet at the end of the hall.”

She opened the door to the left to display the former guest room. “I had the agents who brought your things help me take the bed up to the attic for Erin,” she explained as our new guests took in the room. The powder blue walls were still bare, but there were clothes in the closet, and the bed had been removed and replaced with a large wooden framed pool, roughly four feet high and the size of a queen-sized bed. The water inside was clear and still. “I also had the agents assemble your bed, Alice; I didn’t want to make any mistakes with it, and I’ll let you decorate as you see fit.”

“That’s a bed?” Erin asked uncertainly.

~Yes, it is.~ Alice replied with a slight mental giggle. ~Merfolk need to sleep underwater since we revert to our true forms when we sleep, not that we sleep for long.~ She must have sensed what we were going to ask next because she went on to say, ~We only need about one or two hours sleep per night to be fully rested.~

“Lucky,” I said, “that gives you more time for studying or hobbies.”

She nodded in reply. ~True, and since most of us Manifest between twelve and fourteen, we usually do well in school, or anything that requires a lot of practice. On the other hand, we also get bored very easily.~

We left Alice’s room and went halfway down the hall, where Lydia pulled on a sturdy cord that hung from the long trapdoor in the ceiling to pull down the retractable wooden steps. We followed her up to the attic, which now displayed some of Erin’s posters from her dorm room on the slanted walls. Her clothes hung carefully from a wooden pole that had been bolted to a pair of support beams as a sort of makeshift closet, and there was an old steamer trunk that I remember being empty, but which now had its lid opened to show the rest of Erin’s clothes carefully folded inside.

The chest that Erin had received from her grandfather was at the foot of the bed, which had the quilt that her mother had made for her on top. Beside the bed, her books and school supplies were on a small table along with a battery-powered reading lamp. “Thanks, Lydia, it looks great,” Erin said with a smile as she looked it all over. “Now that I have my grandfather’s chest, I can do some reading before I sleep tonight.”

Lydia then led us back down to the first floor and through the living room to continue the tour. She showed our new roommates the downstairs bathroom and laundry room before we finally ended up in the kitchen. “I usually prepare all the meals, but feel free to use the kitchen yourselves if you like. The backyard isn’t much, but there are a few lawn chairs and a barbecue, and it does have access to the water, as you know from your arrival last night. There’s a basement as well, but only Siv ever went down there. I think that she had a ward that prevented anyone but her and Raven from going downstairs. Raven went down there once when she was little, and I had to wait for her to come back up, so I’ve kept it locked since.”

“I think I remember that. It was dark, and I couldn’t see much, so everything looked really scary. It took me forever to find the stairs again, and when I did get back upstairs, I was so scared that I never wanted to go down there again.” I shivered at the memory.

”Creepy basement that only one person could get into? Sounds like a mystery,” Erin said with a frown. “We may have to go down there and explore, or at the very least send Raven down with a flashlight this time. Raven, I hate to say it, but between that and your mom leaving you a hundred thousand dollar trust fund on a cop’s salary, something smells fishy. And I don’t think that it’s Alice.”

Alice gave her a silent raspberry, but Lydia shook her head and said, “You’re free to explore, but I don’t think it was for anything criminal. Siv might have been very private about her background, but she had very strong morals. She usually went downstairs when she was upset or deep in thought. I think it was her private place; everyone needs one sometimes. It may have some more information on who she was, though.”

“I could use some answers about my mom, especially if I’m going to figure out what this mysterious Divine ability Peter detected is,” I thought aloud. “I’ll have to go down there and see what’s there.”

Despite my resolve, it was another three weeks before I decided to investigate the basement and its mysteries. As tempting as it was, there were more important things to learn at the moment. I spent most of my time with Alice, learning how to pull my claws and wings inside me and keep them there. I was slowly making progress, but it took a lot of concentration to maintain and was extremely uncomfortable. Alice assured me that I was doing very well and that with time, it would get easier and less uncomfortable to maintain.

I was also using that time to get a better sense of my strength, and I was doing well on that front as well, having not destroyed anything unintentionally in over a week. Spending so much time with Alice was conflicting, though. I not only found her very attractive, but she was sweet and fun to be around as well. The more time that we spent together, the harder it was becoming to keep my interest in her to myself, so I threw myself into what she was teaching me in an attempt to keep my mind off her and what was important.

Results were mixed, but at least I was making progress on the shapeshifting. Besides, I sternly told myself several times, I didn’t even know if she was into guys or girls, and it would be just my luck that she was straight. She was also a Mermaid and needed to sleep in water, while I had these enormous wings, so even if she was a lesbian, how could things ever work out between us? We were just too different.

While I was busy working with Alice and trying very hard not to fall for her completely, Erin was spending a lot of her time outside or in the attic reading her grandfather’s journals and practicing the meditation techniques contained within, to not only better control what power she had, but also to increase her power. She had discovered in those books that she could gain more power, and possibly new abilities, by binding spirits to her. The journals contained the rituals needed, but they wouldn’t be of any use to her until she was strong enough on her own to see and interact with spirits. When she wasn’t reading, she was practicing with the rattles and other shaman tools that her grandfather had left for her in the chest.

Whenever we weren’t studying or practicing, we were learning everything about the paranormal world that Alice and Lydia could teach us. This was what eventually caused me to search the basement. Alice was telling us about the various types of Paranormals that she knew of locally, and what was known of them.

When I asked what was known about Valkyries, Alice frowned and shook her head. ~The PDA has very little information about your mother’s people. All they know is that Valks are strong, durable, can fly, and that they come from some sort of warrior culture. They figured at first that information about them was so rare because your mom was the only one they had any long-term contact with, so they tried contacting the different agencies in Scandinavia where Valkyrie myths originated.~

“What did they find out?” I asked.

~That they don’t have much more information than we do,~ she replied with a silent sigh. ~Mom and Dad tried the agencies in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and even Iceland. None had any information outside old myths, sightings, and records of a few mercenaries claiming to be Valkyries who were fighting for Norway during the Napoleonic Wars and World War Two. The Norwegians are really interested in you, by the way. Norway had the most sightings, and they believe your people may have been native to the mountains there.~

I wasn’t sure that I liked how she ended that response. “May have been?” I asked, swallowing a lump in my throat.

~Either they’re very reclusive, even to other Paranormals, or there aren’t many left. There haven’t been sightings or anyone claiming to be one in decades.~ She sighed once more and looked at me sadly. ~I’m sorry, Raven, I wish I had more for you.~

I shook my head and offered a weak smile to try and reassure the Mermaid that all was fine. Looking into her apologetic eyes made the smile come easier, but it also made my heart beat faster in my chest. Damn, I had it bad for her. “It’s not your fault, Alice; your parents tried. If I want to find anything more out, I guess I’ll have to go check in the basement.”

I stood up from the sofa and stretched my wings to get rid of the tightness between my shoulders. Learning to hide them was giving me a better sense of them, and although I was no closer to flying than before, at least I had some degree of control over them now. Once the tightness was gone, I pulled them closer toward my body, so I wouldn’t bang them on any door frames as I went to the kitchen for a flashlight.

“Are you sure you want to go down there alone?” Erin asked in a concerned tone as she and Alice stood up to follow me. Both of my new roommates had tried going down there once, only to find that some invisible force had prevented them, like there was a wall there that they couldn’t see. Alice figured that the same Divine spell that had kept Lydia and my father out was probably meant to keep out anyone except my mother and me, or perhaps just those with Valkyrie blood.

“It’s not like I have a choice. I need answers, and I’m the only one who can get past that door. I’ll try sending my thoughts to Alice once I’m inside. If that works, then at least I can remain in contact while I’m down there,” I conceded in compromise. Then I took the flashlight from the emergency supplies drawer and switched it on to make sure the batteries were good. Once I found that they were, I headed to the door under the stairs and unlocked and opened it. With another weak smile to my roommates, I said, “Here goes nothing,” and headed down the dark stairs.

The small beam of light failed to illuminate much, so I kept it focused on the stairs in front of me so I wouldn’t misstep and fall on my face. ~Alice, can you hear me?~ I sent to the Mermaid.

~Loud and clear,~ she replied. The musical sound of her mental voice reassured me greatly and once again made my heart flutter.

I took each step carefully, not wanting to fall, and when I finally reached the bottom, I swung the flashlight around in an arc. The damn thing just wasn’t powerful enough though, and I couldn’t make out much of anything. “Dammit!” I cursed aloud. “This would be a lot easier if there were some lights on.”

The room was suddenly clearly visible, as white light banished the darkness that had previously cloaked everything. The light came from evenly spaced white globes of light hovering in the air above me and throughout the large room, revealing seventeen years of dust and cobwebs coating the floor and everything else in the room. A large portion of the room was taken up by what appeared to be practice mats for fighting and some sort of practice dummies. At the back of the room, there were weapons of all types displayed on shelves and racks.

Shields, swords, spears, war hammers, bows, and various other weapons from ages past shared space with early firearms and other more modern weapons. It was like some kind of museum of warfare through the ages, and at the center of it all, resting upon a mannequin, was a suit of armor like that pictured on the mythical Valkyries in my textbook. I stared in amazement at everything until Alice broke into my thoughts. ~Are you okay down there, Raven?~ My heart skipped a beat from the concern in her mental voice.

~I’m fine,~ I replied, suddenly glad that she could only hear the thoughts that I purposely sent her. ~I got some sort of lights to work. I think it was some sort of Divine magic that my mother left in place. You should see this place, it’s amazing, like some sort of museum.~

~No, there’s no switch that I know of,~ I responded. ~I’m pretty sure that my mom left a spell in place. These lights just turned on when I complained about there being no lights on.~

~The spell that your mother created to make the lights may be voice-activated,~ she agreed. ~Probably to make it more convenient for her. So what’s all down there?~

~It looks like a practice or training area, and there are a bunch of different weapons, some of which must be ancient. I wonder how she got all of these. Was she some sort of collector?~ I turned around to see an open doorway leading to another room and stepped through to see a large antique desk with a padded stool rather than a chair. ~Hold on, there’s more in this other room.~

As I stepped inside, I noted that the shelves which lined the walls of the room were full of leather-bound books, scrolls, and strange-looking curios. Behind the desk was a large painted portrait of my mother wearing the armor I had seen in the other room, or at least it looked like her, and a brief search produced some photo albums of what I assumed to be my family’s history. Most of the photos were old, and the oldest ones featured five light-haired women, usually armed. One looked a lot like my mother, and another was similar enough to be her sister. I assumed the similar pair in the later photos were their descendants because the resemblance was uncanny.

The more recent photos were of my mother and father with a pair of men that I figured were probably their teammates when they were with the PDA. One of the men had pointed ears, while the other appeared to be a Werewolf. There was also a picture of them holding me when I was born. It must have been taken before I was sealed because I could make out stubby little black wings on my back. Those photos showed my mother with her wings, and they were such a pristine white that they seemed to glow.

A quick look at one of the leather-bound books and some of the opened scrolls showed them to be written in some form of runes. ~This is odd, these all seem to be written in some old language. I recognize some of the runes from my Scandinavian Mythology class, but I have no idea what they say.~ Since I couldn’t find anything that I could understand on the shelves, I decided to check the desk next.

The top of the desk was clear of anything but years of dust and a single envelope. Once I had brushed the dust off, I found that the envelope had my name written on it. ~I found an envelope addressed to me. I’m going to bring it and a few other things upstairs for us to look at.~ I gathered the photo albums, one of the books, and the envelope, and headed up the steps. Once I was at the top, I said aloud, “Lights off.” To my pleasure, the lights vanished, and I shut the door behind me as I left to join Erin and Alice in the living room.

I placed the items I had brought up onto the coffee table and got comfortable on the couch once again. Alice sat beside me as I began to open the envelope. “Lydia went out to get some shopping done while you were down there,” Erin stated as she picked up one of the photo books to look through it. “She said dinner might be late unless you want to order in.”

~Chinese sounds good to me if we’re going to be spending the evening poring over books and old photos,~ Alice put in.

Erin nodded and headed into the kitchen, saying over her shoulder, “I’ll order while you two get started, then.” I barely heard her as I focused on opening the envelope and reading the letter within.

Dearest Raven,

Your loving mother, Siv Demarco

I could feel tears stinging my eyes as I finished reading the letter, and a few drops dampened the aged paper in my hands. I felt arms being wrapped around me, and when I looked up, through eyes half-blind with tears, I saw that both Alice and Erin had me wrapped in their arms. Their hold on me tightened as I began to sob, the letter gripped tightly in my hands.

When I finally managed to regain control of myself, I hugged my two friends in return and placed the letter on the table. Then I took the photograph from the envelope to examine it. She looked like the second woman in the more recent photos, although her hair was much shorter. “Well, at least I know what I need to do now. I need to master hiding my wings, and I need to find this Lin Hansdotter.”

~We’ll help however we can, Raven,~ Alice offered with determination. ~If she’s your mother’s sister, then she may show up somewhere in the PDA database or one of the other agencies' databases. If she was in Vancouver back then, then she might still be here, or we can find out where she went. It’s possible that some of the local Paranormals may know her face, if not her name. We can show the picture to my parents and see what they can come up with. We will find her.~

“Thanks, Alice, I hope you’re right.” I stared at the picture, trying to burn the face into my memory.

The discovery of the letter and the possibility that my estranged aunt might still be alive gave me a good reason to work even harder at learning to hide my wings and keep them hidden. If I was going to go out to search for her, I would need to be able to blend in with the regular humans for long periods of time. With that in mind, I doubled my efforts over the next couple of weeks. I pushed myself to near exhaustion until I managed to hide my wings completely and was able to keep them hidden for several hours at a time.

During those two weeks, any time I wasn’t training with Alice was spent searching the internet for any clues about my aunt, or in the basement. It seemed wrong to leave my mother’s sanctuary covered in dust, so I got to work cleaning it, and then I began to study the scrolls and books. I wish I could say that they provided some of the information that I needed, but sadly, all that I had looked at so far were written in runes, and while I might recognize one or two, I was far from having any true comprehension of the language. Some of those scrolls and books seemed to be ancient, and I considered trying to find a linguist to translate them, but then I would have to explain how I came across them. Besides, who knew what secrets they contained that weren’t meant for humans, or even other Paranormals?

Alice’s parents had looked through the PDA database, and while they did find an entry for Lin Hansdotter, it was over twenty years old, and the address listed was in an apartment complex that had been demolished three years ago. To be thorough, they tried showing her picture around the neighborhood, but nobody had seen her. They weren’t even sure if they could find her using the picture because it was over twenty years out of date. Her appearance had probably changed with age, since she looked about my age in the photograph, and now she would probably be in her forties.

It wasn’t until Tuesday, December 9th, that we finally got a lead on her. By then, I was able to hide my more non-human features for most of the day if I had to. It wasn’t easy and required enough focus to leave me somewhat distracted in public, but it could be done. So, as a reward and a trial by fire, Alice decided that we needed to go shopping. She felt that both Erin and I needed a break and to get out amongst people for a bit. That aside, though, it was weird being out in public again for two reasons.

The first was being cooped up so long, without much of anyone around but each other and Lydia. The second reason was Alice herself. No, this was not about my attraction and growing feelings for her, which I was still trying to keep to myself. So, with me reluctant to communicate my feelings to her, it was kind of funny that communication was the reason that our outing felt a little strange.

Whenever she wanted to speak with a salesperson or someone spoke to us, and she answered, she would go through the motions of using sign language and tell us what she was saying telepathically so we could translate for the person if they didn’t know how to communicate in ASL. We were sitting in the food court of the City Centre mall, eating lunch, when a guy approached us. He was tall, could probably be considered kind of cute, and looked to be in good shape with long, dark purple hair and several piercings.

He and Alice began signing pleasantries, and she quickly sent to us in that melodic mental voice of hers, ~This is Dennis, he’s a friend of mine from down below. Dennis, this is Raven and Erin. I’ve been living with them and teaching Raven how to pass as a human.~

Was he just a friend or more? It didn’t seem like she was flirting with him or even interested in him that way, but the doubts continued to metaphorically stab me in the heart as I watched them interact. I forced myself to shake off those thoughts, smiled at him, and extended my hand to shake his. “It’s nice to meet you, Dennis. Alice has been a big help to me, and any friend of hers is a friend of mine.”

Erin quickly followed suit. “It’s nice to meet you, Dennis. Would you like to join us?”

The Merman smiled, shaking both our hands in turn and signing to us, while his voice hummed in our minds like a bass guitar. ~The pleasure is all mine, ladies. I would love to stay, but I’m supposed to be meeting some friends soon. I just saw Alice, and I thought that I’d say hi.~

I nodded but was secretly relieved. He seemed nice, but I really needed to do something about my growing feelings for Alice. “Hopefully, we’ll see you again sometime,” I offered. Then, just as I had been doing for most of the day, when we got into a conversation with someone, I reached into my purse and took out my aunt’s photo. “Before you go, Dennis, could you tell me if you’ve seen anyone who looks like this? She may look a bit older now, though.”

Dennis took the photo and looked it over, appearing lost in thought for a moment, before finally replying. ~I remember this girl.~

“You’ve seen her?!” I nearly shouted in my excitement.

~I don’t think that I’ll forget that night anytime soon,~ he answered with a smile. ~It was a couple of Fridays ago. Some friends and I went to the Ninth Ring on a dare.~

“The Ninth Ring?” Erin asked before I could.

~It’s a bar for Paranormals on the East Side. A lot of nasty characters hang out there,~ he clarified. ~That girl in the photo was there. She stood out because most Paranormals go there in their true form, and she had wings. I thought she might be an Angel or something until that Troll tried to proposition her. She spat in his face, and then, when he took a swing at her, she caught his hand and took a swing of her own. She knocked him out in one punch.~

“That sounds like it could be her, or a close relative. If she hangs out at that bar, then I know where I’m going on Friday night.” I put the photo away and gave Dennis a grin. “Thanks, Dennis, you’ve been a huge help.”

~You’re welcome,~ he replied. ~One bit of advice, though, if you’re going to go to the Ninth Ring, then you had better take some protection. It’s a dangerous place.~