Gene held me tight in his arms, letting me feel his bare and muscular chest pressed against me. My entire body was responding to his presence, getting extremely turned on. Then Gene finally bent over to give me a kiss.

Suddenly, a familiar voice said, “He’s cute…”

“What?” I gasped in confusion, looking around and abruptly realizing that this was a dream. I’d never kissed Gene in real life so that was the only explanation.

“Much better than another nightmare,” my sister’s voice added, even as the dream blurred and changed around me.

I gasped at the realization that Gene was gone, and in his place there was a man I didn’t know. He was lean and muscular, but he was also a complete stranger so I pulled myself away from him.

“Not funny,” I called out in annoyance and frustration.

The dream continued to blur and change, and a moment later, I found myself standing in darkened room with music playing. There was a lit stage almost immediately in front of me with a nearly naked Mike dancing on it. Dani stood right off stage, cheering him on and throwing dollar bills at him.

“Figures it’s her dream,” I muttered, willing myself to wake up.

I sat upright in bed, gasping for breath and feeling very…frisky. Sharing nightmares with my sisters had been weird enough, but sharing wet dreams was just going too far. I shook my head in annoyance, feeling frustrated at having my dream interrupted. I was still all hot and bothered from it too.

For a moment, I just sat there, realizing that I had two choices. I could either go for a cold shower, or I could do something about this myself. I blushed a little then went to work using my own hands to finish what I’d started in my dream, though it didn’t take long before I began wondering if I should invest in some special toys.

Two hours later, I was in the chow hall, eating breakfast with my sisters. Dani hadn’t said anything about our shared dream, though she did give me a few odd looks to let me know that she remembered it. Every time she looked at me like that, I merely blushed and looked away. Even if we were sisters, there were some things that we just shouldn’t share.

Julie was eating with us as she often did, though this time she was cheerful and almost bubbling over with excitement. “I can’t believe it,” Julie exclaimed. “It’s Friday and I actually have a date tonight…”

“I told you it was a good idea to ask Rich out,” Nicole told her smugly. “I’m glad you finally did it.”

“I know,” Julie blurted out, blushing brightly. “But I was so afraid of what he’d say…”

I nodded at that and added, “Fear of rejection keeps a lot of guys from asking out girls they’re interested in.” I knew that very well, having dealt with that problem myself on more than a few occasions. Now that I was sitting on the other side of the gender fence, I could see that this fear of rejection was universal and not just something that guys dealt with.

“I never would have guessed that he was as nervous as I was,” Julie told me with a broad grin.

“I’ve got a date tonight too,” Nicole said with a grin.

I nodded at that, knowing that this was Nicole’s second date with Pete. After Pete had covered our backs during that last mission, the two of them had gotten to talking and seemed to hit it off. I was happy for Nicole, but of course, if Pete ever hurt her, I was going to have to have a little talk with him…as would Dani and Rebecca.

“I’m going out tonight too,” Dani added with a faint smirk.

“Did you let Mike beat you again?” I asked her with a chuckle.

Dani just shook her head and responded, “No, I beat him in a few games of pool…after we bet a nice dinner on it.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Rebecca asked with a roll of her eyes.

Julie gave Dani an odd look before asking, “Why don’t you two just date like a normal couple?”

“Where’s the fun in that?” Dani asked with a grin. Then Dani smirked and looked at me. “You have a date tonight too…don’t you Monica?”

I blushed brightly at that and then gave a self-conscious nod. “Um…yeah. Gene asked me out to dinner.”

“Congratulations,” Nicole exclaimed, throwing her arms around me in a hug. Then she quietly told me, “I just hope this works out a little better for you than your last time did.”

That made me suddenly blush even more, as well as give her an odd look. I didn’t want to remember that I’d had sex with Nicole. Sure, I’d been a guy at the time, but now she was my sister and that made the whole thing kind of weird.

“Make sure you bring some condoms,” Dani told me.

“We’re not going that far,” I protested, wanting to crawl under the table and hide.

“You should,” Dani said, giving me a steady look. “Trust me, not only does it feel great but it will help cement who you are now.”

“Oh God,” I groaned.

Rebecca gave me a sympathetic look and took pity on me, asking, “Am I the only one here who doesn’t have a date for tonight?” Then she looked around the table and let out an exaggerated sigh. “Now I feel like a loser.”

After this, Dani and Nicole focused on Rebecca, offering suggestions of who she should ask out. They both even offered to set her up on dates, though Rebecca didn’t seem enthused by the idea. I just watched in silence, keeping my mouth shut so they’d forget about me and my date. Rebecca gave me a look that seemed to say, “You owe me one.”

When we got back to Heaven, the phone on the wall began to ring almost immediately. Nicole answered the phone, then let out a sigh as she hung up a few seconds later.

“That was Hannah,” Nicole announced with a shake of her head. “She says we have an important briefing in half an hour…and that there are going to be a couple VIPs.”

“Well, there goes my plans for the morning,” Dani said with a roll of her eyes.

A short time later, we were sitting in the briefing room along with all the usual suspects. I glanced around the room, spotting Hannah and Colonel Roberts sitting off to the side. Captain Brooks stood in the back as he normally did. And of course, I noticed Mike, Pete, and Gene, though they sat halfway across the room from Angel Squad.

Then I noticed the newcomers, people who I’d never seen here before. Among them was a general who took a seat beside Colonel Roberts while another was a man in his late fifties who was wearing an expensive suit. The man in the suit took a seat beside the general and slowly looked around with a sour look on his face. These were obviously the VIPs we’d been warned about.

After a few seconds, I realized that Rebecca was actually glaring at them with a dark expression. Nicole grabbed Rebecca’s hand and held it in her own while giving similar dark looks in that direction. I looked to Dani and saw that she tense but that unlike Rebecca and Nicole, clearly avoided looking at the VIPs.

Before I could ask what was going on, Dr. Merrit went to the podium at the front of the room and began the briefing. “This briefing is in regards to the demon eggs that have recently been discovered.” Then he calmly listed off some long numbers, the case numbers for the missions. That was a detail that no one here cared about, but that didn’t prevent Dr. Merrit from providing that information anyway.

I scowled and looked to Rebecca, seeing that she was now watching the images on the screen in front of us with a grim expression. When Rebecca had arranged our secret meeting the other day to discuss the possibility of creating new angels, one of the reasons for her doing so had been the demon eggs. The demons were increasing in number too much as it was and the existence of the eggs only meant that they would be able to do so more quickly.

“Yesterday, the Third Demon Suppression Unit was deployed on a mission,” Colonel Roberts announced as he moved to the front of the briefing room. “During this mission, the third DSU encountered three demons who were working as a pack unit.”

“Oh shit,” Dani muttered, verbalizing what we were all thinking.

“I hate being right,” Rebecca whispered.

“Five good men were killed,” the colonel continued grimly. “Once the demons were lured into an open area, aerial support was able to get a lock on them and eliminate them from a distance. Afterwards, two of these demons were found to be carrying eggs.”

The screen changed to show pictures of two more demon eggs, both of them looking like slimy green footballs…just like the previous eggs. There were numerous mutterings around the room, though whether it was the demon pack or the eggs that was most alarming to everyone else I didn’t know.

Dr. Merrit took over the briefing again and stated, “The newly recovered eggs appear identical to the previously discovered ones. Due to the mutagenic and highly individualized nature of demons, this similarity in appearance is highly suspicious. This resulted in further investigation and comparison to the eggs. After careful analysis, our conclusion is that each of these eggs originated from the same demon.”

Everyone in the room went silent at that news, though only for a second. Then Dani exclaimed, “How the fuck is that possible? Those eggs were found hundreds of miles apart.”

“Angel subject three,” Dr. Merrit said with a note of contempt in his voice. “That is a subject I was about to discuss…”

Dani snarled but Nicole put a hand on her, whispering, “Don’t give him the satisfaction.”

Colonel Roberts gestured for Dr. Merrit to back off then said, “Dani is correct. The eggs were found hundreds of miles apart and we have no clear answers to why, only conjecture.”

Dr. Merrit scowled at that but was then allowed to continue the briefing. “As each of the demons found to be carrying an egg was male, it is possible that these are the fathers. However, we have not yet been able to confirm this. As Colonel Roberts stated, most of what we know about the source of these eggs is conjecture. What we do know is that a demon is creating these eggs while other demons disperse them away from the mother, perhaps in an instinctive attempt to preserve and spread their species.”

“Even demons know not to put all their eggs in one basket,” someone joked.

“At the moment, our best theory is that the presence of a fertile female may have triggered an adaptive response within other demons,” Dr. Merrit continued as though he hadn’t been interrupted. “She may have taken a role akin to the queen of an insect colony, producing eggs while other demons have adapted to…or have been somehow coopted to serve the good of the group.”

I scowled as I considered what this meant, and just how dangerous it would be for not only us but the entire world. Of course, it made sense that demons breeding and cooperating would be tied together. This was an indication that they were adapting, changing from infection victims into a species of their own. Unfortunately, this would be a species that could not possibly coexist peacefully with humans.

Dr. Merrit continued his briefing but it was soon clear that he had little new information to provide. Eventually, Colonel Roberts stood up front and announced, “The existence of this demon queen, if that is what she is, is one of our greatest threats. We are putting a lot of resources into locating her, and on back tracking the demons who were found with the eggs. Needless to say, this is one of our top priorities.”

When the briefing was over, I noticed that the sour faced man in the suit went to talk to Dr. Merrit. Rebecca watched them with a deep scowl, glaring at them with a hatred that I’d never seen from her before. Obviously, it was the man in the suit whom she’d been glaring at earlier, not the general.

“Who is that?” I asked.

“Senator Jeffrey Dolenz,” Rebecca said in a bitter tone, nearly spitting out the name.

“He’s the guy who put Merrit here,” Dani added grimly.

I watched Rebecca’s expression and carefully said, “I take it you know him.”

“I’ve met him once,” Rebecca answered in a cold voice, staring at me with a dark expression. “He came to my mom’s lab to see her progress on their super soldier virus. He was the one who decided that it didn’t have enough cost benefit. He was the one who insisted that they make a more versatile and powerful version of the virus.”

I turned and stared at Senator Dolenz, now understanding Rebecca’s reaction to him. This was one of the people most responsible for the existence of demons…and for the death of her mother.