“What’s going on?” he demanded.

A few moments later, the picture returned, but this time it was on a different channel, one showing a local news program. My smile faded, and my stomach sank.

“No,” I breathed.

The camera crew was reporting from Queen Elizabeth Park, another gorgeous area in the city that I’d briefly considered going to after Stanley Park. I wondered if I might have seen this atrocity and been able to stop it if I had visited.

The Army of Darkness had staged a demonstration there late that afternoon. I counted about ten of them, so they must have recruited some of their auxiliary members. They were clothed in robes and hoods made out of cheap black and purple velvet, but I recognized two figures that looked suspiciously like Evan and Allison. Some of them held signs with pentagrams and assorted “evil” slogans while they walked around chanting something I couldn’t make out. One of them had stuck a pole in the ground with a giant rubber goat mask on top of it. The mask wasn’t affixed very well and kind of hung off to the side, making it look more like a mutant goat than an emblem of Hell. The footage showed a crowd gathered around and, later, police coming to break everything up.

I quickly charged the drinks to my room and sprinted off, pulling out my cell phone as I did.

“Blake? This is Georgina.”

He groaned. “I know, I know. I just found out.”

“What the hell happened? They said they weren’t going to do anything. You said they weren’t going to do anything.”

“I didn’t think they would!” He sounded sincerely upset. “I was at work until about a half-hour ago. I had no idea—honest. They did it on their own. I guess a bunch of them got arrested. Evan, Joy, and Crystal made it out, though.”

I sighed and canceled our plans for tonight. I had to do damage control before Cedric or one of his associates came after me—and I knew for a fact they would.

I drove over to Evan’s house. He answered the door, still wearing the robe but not the hood. His face was radiant and excited. “Georgina! Did you see the news? Did you see what we did?”

“Yes!” I pushed him back inside, closing the door behind me before any of the neighbors could see him. “What happened? You said you wouldn’t do anything else until we met again! What happened to influencing people for the greater goo—evil?”

He finally caught on that I didn’t share his excitement. “You don’t think we influenced people?”

“I think you influenced some people to think you were freaks. A bunch of churches are probably going to have sermons tomorrow about staying pure and true or something like that.”

Evan flounced onto his couch, speculative but still glowing with the rush of their stunt. “No, this was powerful. Its effects will be far reaching.”

Far reaching enough to get me smote, no doubt. “What happened? What made you decide to do it? Had you been planning it all along?”