During a dream in which Gail is confronted by her former coaches, all of whom are upset because she never fulfilled her Olympic-caliber potential, a strange figure appears. This is a swordsman with broken shackles on his wrists and ankles, and eyes that glow with a fiery radiance. He challenges Gail to a duel, testing her strength and swordsmanship. He tells her she must become much stronger if she is to survive the challenges that lay before her.

He leaves her with an enigmatic message: “In all the worlds that are, there is only one law that holds true. What goes up, must come down.” As Gail looks up and sees an entire planet hurtling towards her, she jolts awake, sweating and gasping with the panic carried over from her dream.

Sharon and Gail eagerly anticipate the coming Independence Day party at the Curmen home. Their father always has some surprising ritual for lighting the grill, and this will be Sharon’s first big public appearance since recovering from paralysis. The only dark cloud in the horizon comes from their grandmother – Stella wants Sharon to come to her home alone that evening. Unfortunately, Sharon hasn’t gotten her driver’s license yet, so Gail agrees to act as chauffer.

At the party, there a few noteworthy moments. One is when Sharon reveals to Gail that she is still bisexual – Gail is uncomfortable with this, and had hoped that it was a phase she would grow out of after high school. The other is Aaron Curmen’s explosive use of liquid oxygen to ignite the charcoal in the grill. After the party ends, Gail drives Sharon out to their grandmother’s house, up in the sparsely-populated forests of the Sierras.

Stella has set a trap for Sharon. Using security bars to turn her house into an inescapable prison, she lures Sharon into her home and attempts to kill her with a shotgun. Sharon barely evades the first attack, but takes a wound to her shoulder. She flees into the house as her grandmother reloads.

Hearing the gunshots, Gail charges to the rescue, but is unprepared to find her own grandmother as the assailant. Stella knocks Gail cold, then pursues Sharon into the house.

Sharon sees a pyre and realized that not only does her grandmother mean to murder her, but she wants to torch her body and the house with it. Terrified and confused, Sharon retreats to the basement. There, she finds the power junction, and draws enough electricity into herself to black out the nearby town. When her grandmother descends into the basement, Sharon’s counterattack is unbelievably swift and powerful – she crushes the shotgun in her bare hand while disarming Stella.

In the aftermath, Sharon binds her grandmother to a chair and awakens her sister. Stella asks Gail to take her revolver… saying that when she is done explaining why she tried to kill Sharon, Gail will want to finish the job for her.

Stella tells a tale from her youth in New Orleans, when she was a young bride whose husband was going off to war. On her own in the city, she met a mysterious masked man at a Mardis Gras party and took him to bed. In the moment of passion, she unmasked him and saw glowing red eyes… and took him to be the devil in disguise. She became pregnant with Lily that night.

After her husband died overseas, Stella was left to raise Lily alone. She tried to suppress the “Satanic” blood in her daughter, raising her with an iron hand. Lily grew up timid and meek, but when she married Aaron Curmen and had her own children, Stella had less control over how they were raised. In Gail, she saw a good and God-fearing child. In Sharon, though, she saw an irreverent, sinful atheist.

When Sharon’s power began to show, Stella concluded that it was the devil beginning to take control of her. This is her reason for trying to kill Sharon – to keep her from becoming a horror.

Sharon is ready to laugh off the story as insane, but Gail believes there is some truth in the tale, even though she does not agree with her grandmother’s conclusions. Further, Gail recognizes the man in Stella’s story as the same one from her dream. She believes this man, their real grandfather, is the reason why Sharon has developed superhuman powers – and why Gail herself is a preternaturally gifted athlete.

Their last lead for finding their grandfather is old, but the sisters can think of no other place to begin. Together, they decide to go to New Orleans to pursue the truth of who – and what – they are.

The first new face we meet is Ray Warwick, a man with a benign manner and a gift for deception. In the service of a shadowy authority, he begins to investigate the strange occurrences that took place at Stella’s house on Independence Day... leading him inexorably towards Sharon and Gail.

The second perspective belongs to Saxony Canterbury, a New Orleans private eye with connections to the occult. He is locked in an ongoing struggle with another occultist, the enigmatic Bella Brouchard, who matches her mystical powers against his in some ongoing conflict. Their latest skirmish involves a hit man, a cryptic message, and a magic trick that is more than sleight-of-hand.

Saxony is approached by the Shackled Man, who knows that Sharon and Gail are coming to New Orleans. He hires Saxony’s “Steel Angels Investigations” to observe the girls, and to send someone to give them an idea of what kind of dangers they are heading into. Taking the job, Saxony contacts a freelancer named Psyche.

Psyche is our third perspective, and when we meet her, she is being pursued by a gang on the streets of Houston who mean her no good. Terrified and helpless, she flees through the rain… until Saxony’s call reaches her, and she hears her name spoken. That transformation shocks her into remembering her identity, and she handles her would-be assailants with brutal efficiency.

This strange, dangerous woman agrees to take the job of seeking out Sharon and Gail to help them “awaken,” and is pleased that she is allowed to play it rough.

The sisters take an unhurried route across country to New Orleans, taking in sights along the way as they try to process all they have learned. They begin to wonder about the limits of their potential, and how to test them. They also muse on why most people deliberately overlook their power, and other things that they don’t know how to interpret.

We follow Ray Warwick as he continues his investigation. Though his ruse to wheedle answers out of Aaron Curmen fails miserably, he is able to pass himself off as a gentleman Bridge player to Lily Curmen, and thus gain her confidence. From her, he discovers the story of Sharon’s miraculous healing.

On the road, Sharon and Gail’s journey takes them into Oklahoma City. There, they meet Psyche for the first time. The stranger confronts each sister, forcing them to draw upon their hidden power in order to deal with Psyche’s own superhuman abilities.

Their conflict ultimately leads to a church, where Psyche lets them witness another supernatural phenomenon. They meet a vampire, desperately in need of rescue from the “null zone” of Oklahoma City – a place with so little ambient magic that it will eventually kill a being such as him. Sharon and Gail are startled to see a real vampire, as well as by the fact that it reacts to Gail’s authentic Japanese sword as a holy symbol, but not the cross in the church.

Shaken by the evening’s strangeness, Sharon and Gail continue their journey, each full of doubts and misgivings about what kind of strange, unpredictable world they have entered.

Lily Curmen brings her “Bridge partner” Ray Warwick to meet her mother, in spite of her misgivings. After making an excuse to send Lily away on an errand, Stella confronts Warwick alone – with her pistol in hand. She does not buy Warwick’s phony gentleman act for a second, and demands to know what he is really doing.

Warwick says he will tell her the “truth,” and unexpectedly begins to remove his shirt as he tells Stella that he is a servant of the Lord. To Stella’s astonishment, angelic wings appear on Warwick’s back and he is bathed with a heavenly radiance. Stella is amazed, yet strangely quiet upon receiving this revelation.

In New Orleans, we meet Saxony Canterbury’s partner in the Steel Angels detective agency. This is the beautiful Hayaka – a woman who is half-human and half-kitsune (Japanese fox-spirit). Whatever powers she gains from her spirit lineage, Hayaka also carries a weakness: whoever holds her “White Ball” holds her soul in his hand.

A man named Grant Grogan has stolen this important artifact, and now uses it to command Hayaka… and by proxy, Saxony. Like Ray Warwick, Grogan is one of the seven top members of Perivigilum (or “Vigil” for short), a group Saxony describes as “the most powerful players in the magical world.” Grogan has come to New Orleans for two reasons – to take control of the magical element in the city, and to investigate Sharon and Gail Curmen.

He forcibly enlists Saxony and Hayaka to serve him in both of these ends. With no recourse to accept, the two agree to help… at least until they can figure out how to escape Grogan’s grasp.

In New Orleans, Sharon and Gail begin to undertake the formidable task of tracking a man who was last seen over half a century ago – and who may not even be human. After several fits and starts, they begin to find some more leads and clues, digging ever deeper into the hidden occult world of New Orleans. Perhaps their most substantial discovery is a remarkable restaurant-owner whose own story is very similar to the one their grandmother told.

Both the sisters struggle to reconcile the things they have seen and experienced. Sharon’s rational world view teeters on the brink of collapse, while Gail’s own faith is sorely tested. Unable to turn back, the sisters try to hone their own skills and discover the limits of their newfound power.

Unobserved, Saxony and Hayaka track the progress of the sisters, reporting each move they make to Grant Grogan.

Back in California, Ray Warwick meets with grandmother Stella, who is less awed by him than he had hoped. He reveals that Vigil is interested in the possibly dangerous magical powers of not only Sharon, but Gail and Lily as well. Under Warwick’s threats, Stella has no choice but to help Vigil with their investigation, and reveals her connection to the man she believes is the devil.

Meanwhile in New Orleans, Grant Grogan prepares to “neutralize” the occultist Bella Brouchard as part of his campaign to take control of the city’s magical population. Saxony tries to warn him of how dangerous Brouchard is, revealing his own dark history with the woman. Brouchard, he says, is responsible for the death of his twin sister Jinevra – a ritual used to make a seven-string harp that will grant her unspeakable power.

Grogan proceeds confidently, assembling an attack team to sweep Brouchard’s mansion and slaughter everyone there. In spite of Vigil’s technology and experience, though, Bella Brouchard escapes, and leaving a message for Grogan. She claims to have created an army of vampires that she can unleash as a doomsday contingency, and threatens to use them if Vigil does not leave her alone.

Grogan shoots the raven that carried the message and inadvertently triggers a trap –- an attack by an Indian demon called a Rakshasa. The creature’s wrath decimates the Vigil assault team, though it will not attack Saxony Canterbury. To finally subdue the monster, Grogan transforms into an angelic aspect, sprouting six wings from his back and dispatching the Rakshasa with a single blow from his heavenly sword.

Saxony is left with many new doubts and revelations about both Grogan and Bella Brouchard. Sharon and Gail continue their search, unaware of the deadly currents now moving in the magical world around them.

Three short encounters reveal the dangerous unfolding intrigue that is still invisible Sharon and Gail. In the first, Saxony manages to reach Psyche by phone in one of the few times he is not being watched by Vigil. Although he now knows more about how powerful Vigil’s top authorities are, he nevertheless plots with Psyche to oppose them. He directs her to recruit the help of Aaron Curmen before Vigil’s people have a chance to get to him.

In the next encounter, Ray Warwick of Vigil reveals to Grandmother Stella what they have done with Lily Curmen, whom they know to be the daughter of “the Adversary.” To her horror, Stella sees that Lily’s mind is trapped in a happy delusion, while she is physically held in custody by Vigil for their observation. Warwick reveals that they will soon test Sharon and Gail… and determine their fates.

The final conversation occurs between Ray Warwick and Grant Grogan. These two Vigil powerhouses agree that the threat posed by Bella Brouchard’s vampires is indeed deadly serious – and they form a plan to counteract it.

Back in New Orleans, we see that Gail and Sharon have taken up a routine of martial arts training every morning before they continue their investigations. Saxony Canterbury watches this, impressed especially by Gail’s keen awareness. The girls have attracted the attention of the local kids – and of a young man named Devin, whose interest in Sharon is apparent.

Before Saxony can research anything about Devin, he and Hayaka are pulled off surveillance. They are put under the supervision of one Mrs. Whitehead of Vigil, and are commanded to go with her to London for new training and re-education. Saxony suspects that Vigil has made up their mind about what to do about the girls… and, fearing the worst, he uses the feather he collected from Bella Brouchard’s messenger raven to send a message of his own.

Sharon and Gail go out on the town that night – still oblivious to the machinations around them, their most pressing concern is whether Sharon is going to spend the night with Devin. Gail leaves Sharon to do as she will… and walks right into the trap Vigil has set for her.

To test the authenticity of Gail’s faith, Vigil sets three vampires they have located (creations of Brouchard’s) against her. Gail’s spiritual power not only keeps the vampires at bay, but to the astonishment of the Vigil observers, she quickly annihilates two of them. It seems Gail is attempting to help the third vampire in some way, but an agent of Vigil named Matt Hayes kills it. He makes contact with Gail, telling her half-truths and outright lies about Vigil in order to recruit her. Gail has passed her trial, and warily accompanies Hayes to learn more about this strange organization.

Sharon’s test is subtler – she follows Devin into a church late at night, hoping to find some shelter for lovemaking. Instead, he drugs her, leaving her almost helpless. Vigil’s team moves in, determines that Sharon’s sinfulness is too great, and decides to kill her there in the church, where the lightning rod keeps her from using her abilities to save herself.

Sharon is unexpectedly saved by a new arrival: a man who reveals himself to be a Dvergr, or Dwarf, named Agnir. He slaughters the Vigil team with brutal efficiency, and offers to take Sharon to shelter with his employer – the sorceress, Bella Brouchard.

When the airplane transporting Mrs. Whitehead and her prisoners touches down in London, Vigil’s agents receive a nasty shock. Saxony and Hayaka have escaped from their clutches. To her horror, Mrs. Whitehead discovers that Saxony stole Hayaka’s White Ball from under her nose, thus freeing the half-kitsune to work her illusions and allow them to slip free.

Saxony reveals that he sent Bella Brouchard a message to save the girls – knowing that she would want to kill one herself to make a string for her harp. Now, he and Hayaka need to evade pursuit and return to New Orleans, hopefully in time to save whichever sister Brouchard decides to sacrifice.