by Michael Todd
Father Judah set down his cup. “It was a success. They retrieved all the leaders of the church, minus the two elders who we are still unable to reach. He has just turned on the road to the vineyard.”
Father Leopold put his fork down and took a deep breath. “And the congregation?”
The other priest sighed and walked to the window. “They were able to save a number that were there, but some got away while others weren’t in attendance. We’ll simply add them to the demon population of London, I suppose. Oh, and there was a fire. Damian got the heads out before calling the authorities. All the humans exorcised were retrieved and have no memory of what happened or even how they got to the church in the first place. They are calling it a demon incursion and pointing the fingers at the mercenaries for cleaning it up.”
The older priest nodded, standing up from the table. “Good. Then all is as it should be. Let’s hope Damian handled the transport of these men in a proper manner.”
Father Christoff turned in his chair. “And if he didn’t?”
Father Leopold pursed his lips. “Then we will find a way to punish him that doesn’t scare him off. Judah is right. He could run back to Katie anytime he likes. She is part-angel, after all. That is closer to God than even the church. But I don’t want to see that happen.”
Father Judah turned around, narrowing his eyes. “Why such an interest in Damian?”
He started for the door. “It’s not Damian who is my primary interest. His student is the one we have had our eye on this whole time. You know that. I don’t know why you question me now. He needs to be trained, and questionable manners or not, Damian is the best to do it. We simply need to keep our eye on him.”
Damian drove up the gravel drive until the rows of grapevines gave way to a large, Southern-looking mansion. The grounds were exquisitely manicured, and only church transports were parked outside. He pulled the SUV up close to the front and looked out his window.
He had heard of the retreat before but never knew where it was located. It was a winery that was completely restricted to anyone except for the higher echelon of the church. It was considered a safe haven for them to go and a place to relax and do business at the same time. It only made sense that the Wise Men would be found there. They were never very fond of crowded cities and tended to stay out of them as often as possible.
As Damian reached for the door handle, the three Wise Men walked out the front doors, coming to greet him in their normal mysterious way. They seemed almost out of place with their solemn faces among the sunlight and blooming fields. He wondered if they ever actually enjoyed themselves, or if everything was always dark corners and secrets.
He straightened his bow tie as he stepped out of the vehicle and realized he was wearing the same thing he had on when he met with them the day before. Slowly, he walked toward them and stopped several feet away. “Good morning, Fathers.”
The three looked at the SUV and then at him, raising their eyebrows. Father Christoff brushed breakfast crumbs from his robes. “Where are the priests? We were told they were taken out safely. Safely, that is, before the church nearly burnt down.”
Damian held up a finger. “I want to go on record saying that was not my fault. It was a demon and—”
Father Leopold raised his hand. “We know it wasn’t your fault. No need to explain. The Secretary assured us that a demon on the loose had set fire to the church. Hopefully, it went down with the flames. The fewer maniacal demons running around, the better. We simply want to know that the priests are safe. They are extremely important to the church.”
He smiled and waved them over, heading for the back of the SUV. “Oh, ye of little faith. You don’t think that I would actually fail at this, did you? I think that in all my years of service for you, I have never failed to produce the outcome you hoped for. It may not have gone as planned, but in the end, everything turned out all right. It’s the same in this situation.”
Father Christoff grumbled as he followed Damian. “Yes, well…sometimes, not going as planned can backfire on you. We don’t need any more attention brought to the church, and this fire did just that. Still, if you got the priests, then you completed the job successfully, and that is what really matters, I suppose. We merely need to start being a little more together with how we work things.”
The three Wise Men all lined up at the back of the SUV, looking at each other suspiciously. Father Leopold looked around. “Well?”
Damian cleared his throat and reached for the door handle. As he opened it, he could see all three of them shifting in their stances. In the back of the SUV, the heads of the church were piled together, unconscious. He looked slowly up at the Wise Men, whose faces dropped then immediately turned into matching snarls. It was obvious that they were not happy in the least with how he had transported them.
He put his hands up. “If you allow me, I would like to explain.”
Father Christoff huffed. “I would hope so, bringing these men to us like a stack of groceries. It’s disgraceful. I think I’ve seen it all at this point.”
Damian swallowed hard. “When we finally found the priests, they were in a chamber beneath the church. All but one of them had been infected and were unconscious from taking in their demons. Max and I went to work immediately, exorcising the demons from them. Unfortunately, when that occurs, the human almost always passes out. So, they have been asleep for quite a long time. I had no other way to transport them, so I got them here in the best manner I could.”
Father Judah lifted his head. “And the one who wasn’t infected? Did you toss him back here with the rest?”
Damian walked around to the side and opened the door. “I put him here. He has a pretty gnarly bump on his head, but from outward inspection, it looks like he’ll be fine. The demon that attacked him was trapped under a bookcase, and I killed it. I’m assuming it was the bookcase that both injured the father and trapped the demon at the same time. There were several there who had taken over the human host completely. We had fatalities, though no one will find a body because they all turned to dust. This priest was lucky. He didn’t get infected, merely knocked out.”
The Wise Men immediately turned away from him and began to whisper to each other. He folded his hands together in front of him and rocked back and forth from the tip of his toes to his heels. Feeling slightly awkward standing there while he knew they were obviously talking about him, he looked around the vineyard. In fact, it seemed like they were arguing with each other.
Father Leopold put up his hand to the other two and patted Father Christoff on the shoulder. Damian turned around, not wanting them to know he had watched their discussion. He imagined things like this happened often between them, though no one was really ever close enough to see it except for Damian and a few select members of the church.
He turned, hearing Father Judah walk forward. The father waved his fingers at those standing outside the front door of the house. The leader of the staff stuck his head in the door and clapped his hands. A dozen or so men appeared, all wearing white and all meticulously groomed. Damian stepped to the side as they looked in the SUV and began moving the priests carefully inside to take care of them.
“You guys are doing a fantastic job,” he said, tilting his hat.
When the last of the priests had been removed, he walked over and closed the SUV. He turned around and clasped his hands in front of him, knowing he wouldn’t get off that easily. Father Leopold watched as the last worker went into the mansion and closed the door before speaking. “I have to say, Damian, this is most disappointing. The way that those priests were handled is despicable.”
He thought about chiming in but decided that would probably be frowned upon. They were his superiors, after all.
The priest stepped forward and continued, “These men, much like yourself, have served the church for decades. And again, much like yourself, they require respect, even in situations like this. I hope that none of them ever find out how they were delivere
d to this winery. They would be appalled. Of course, I have gone over your file with a fine-toothed comb, and this situation, unfortunately, does not surprise me in the least.”
Father Christoff stepped up next to Leopold. “Thank you for getting them out safely, even if your treatment after was abhorrent. You may return home, and we will be in contact with you for your next assignment. Until then, may we suggest that you spend the time not only asking for forgiveness from your Savior but brushing up on how to treat higher members of this church?”
Father Leopold walked past him with Father Christoff on his heels, neither one of them making eye contact. Father Judah began to follow them with his head down, then paused. Damian looked at him and watched as he slowly raised his head, revealing his face beneath the shadow of his robes. The father’s lips curled up into a smirk before he hurried off and out of sight.
He waited until the three were back inside before he rubbed his face and hopped back into the SUV. Ravi was a bit thrown off. Personally, I think you handled that well. Besides, those men are older than Jesus. Who are they to complain? Maybe they should have put their asses on the line.
Damian smiled as he started the truck. You have much to learn, little Ravi. The church is a strange and powerful thing. Though I love to serve it, we don’t always see eye to eye. In this instance, I picked my battles wisely. We’ll see where that leads me in the future.
Chapter Twenty
Damian sighed with exhaustion as he put the key in the door and opened it quietly. He could hear the living room television and wondered if Max was still awake. He tossed the keys on the side table by the door and walked through. As he entered the living room, he laughed to himself. The young priest was passed out in the chair with an empty bowl of ice cream and a half-full cup of tea.
He picked the remote up and turned off the television, then grabbed a blanket and spread it over him, noticing the satchel still around his neck. As he reached down to take the satchel off, Max woke up and grabbed his wrist. “Oh, I thought it was an intruder. I must have fallen asleep.”
Damian smiled and offered his hand to help him up. “It’s all right. I don’t blame you. It’s been a long night. Why don’t you head to bed? I’ll wake you in a bit.”
Max nodded and took the satchel off, gripping it tightly as he stumbled into his room and set it on his nightstand. The priest watched as he crawled into the bed and plopped his head down onto the pillow. He walked over and shut the door quietly, finding he wasn’t as tired as he thought he would be. “Guess it’s no sleep for the weary.”
Ravi yawned. I feel like him right now. Let me ask you a question. Do you think he is cut out for this?
Damian wrinkled his forehead. What do you mean? It was his first time at an incursion, and I think he did very well.
True, but at the same time, he has a really soft heart. Bravery, he has gotten down. Pushing through the fear, check, but that soft heart is hard to handle in situations like those. I saw the look of despair on his face when those people died.
Damian shrugged. Don’t you remember the first incursion I ever faced? I had seen dead bodies when I worked SWAT on numerous occasions, but when it came to the innocent, it struck me hard. There was a good week where Korbin let me simply keep to myself in my room.
I remember. You were bumming me out hardcore. I thought I had made an even more terrible choice than I originally thought. You came out of it, though, and I don’t think it was a bad thing.
He walked over to the closet and hung his coat up. In a survival way, it was good, but in a humanistic way, I would say it wasn’t. I hardened my heart, and it changed me.
But if it didn’t, you might not have made it.
Damian stood in the dining room, thinking about Ravi’s words. The difference is, I was a merc, and he is not. I’m not saying it will be easier, merely different. There is something about that softness that makes him good at this job. Only time will tell, really.
Ravi gasped excitedly when he walked over to the small bar in the corner of the dining room and poured himself a glass of bourbon. Now that’s what I’m talking about. And you got the Woodford, too. I love it.
He shook his head and walked over to the stack of maps and books on the table. He ran his finger down and pulled one from the bottom. It was a book he had asked Maps for on the side, something that had little to do with the incursion they had just faced. She had slipped it in without Max noticing when they left her house.
Damian walked into the living room and picked up the fire poker to stoke the flames. The house had chilled with the changing seasons, and the fire felt amazing. He set his whiskey on the small table next to the chair and sat down, opening the book. It was information on the fallen angels, something that he had always been interested in understanding but which eluded most people. They were not mentioned by name in the bible, and they were rarely talked about in church, yet they were the source of everything unholy.
He read the first passage.
Fallen angels are those beings that were expelled from Heaven. They were considered to be tortured souls, those that turned from God’s hand and looked for other reason. One of the original fallen angels is now often referred to as Lucifer or the ruler of hell. He was cast out of Heaven by God and sent to rule the underworld, the place thought to be in existence for those not in God’s graces at the time of death. Many hints have come about through biblical passages, but few know exactly what would cause an angel to be expelled.
It didn’t explain anything new to him, and Damian had heard this line of information hundreds of time. He turned the page, looking at an old painting of the devil ruling over lost souls in hell. He continued to read.
There has often been some confusion between fallen angels and demons, but as the world has seen through century-long wars, some demons are fallen angels, and others are not. Those cast from Heaven by God were given a special place beside Lucifer, thought to be the rebels of the greatest war that has ever happened. Many think that because the devil is bound to hell, the war was won, but on the contrary, it only began when he was chained beneath. His fallen angels were put in charge of helping to create a legion, an army of the foulest creatures that Earth has ever seen. Due to man’s creation through the love of God, the demons often look negatively down on humans and seek to torture and even take over God’s most precious creation.
To say that all fallen angels are pure evil, however, would be a misconception. Not all fallen angels are bound to hell. Many choose hell as a sanctuary but still wander the Earth, looking for their place. They are neither pure good or pure evil, making them much like humans.
Ravi sighed. This sounds like some kid wrote it in his basement. I mean, it’s got validity to it, but it’s not all correct.
Damian had forgotten that she was a demon and had been around for many centuries. What is different than what is in this book?
Well, for starters, Lucifer may be the most well-known fallen angel, but he is not the one who hurt God the most. There is one that when she left, God created storms through his tears. She is neither pure evil or pure good. Then there are others. Ones who possess their angel powers but aren’t allowed in Heaven anymore. They are the ones that passed on that gift to humans on Earth, or at least, they’re one way that happens.
He rubbed his chin. And are any of these fallen angels on Earth in the flesh?
The demon hesitated. I don’t really know how much of this I am supposed to divulge. I mean, I’ve never had a human ask questions about it before. You have to remember, Damian, many of these things are far beyond the comprehension of humans. Many are even far beyond the comprehension of demons like myself.
Damian knew Ravi was holding back, protecting something, but he couldn’t blame her. He didn’t have a strong relationship with her, even after thirty years. She seldom showed herself during his mercenary days, and when she did, it was strictly for healing purposes. Most of the time, the healing wasn’t even for his benefit. It was for hers. She didn
’t like the body she was in, but she didn’t want to go back to hell either.
He wrinkled his nose, looking down at the book. I merely find it interesting that near-perfect creatures can so easily fall from grace.
She laughed. Well, believe it or not, standards set by the guy up there are pretty hard to live up to. We—or they–are beings created in his image as well. They are only there to assist him on Earth since he cannot show himself. Sometimes, even those beings find their minds in other places, dreaming of a life they couldn’t have.
Damian sighed. I guess that’s not something that only humans go through.
No, but you guys are the worst. You fight all your lives for the things that you want, and then poof, you get it. When you have it, you always want more. You are constantly trying to satiate this thirst that is unquenchable. At least, you think it is. But that’s a whole other topic. Fallen angels are complex, and there are a lot of secrets hidden in the folds.
He stretched his arms over his head. I guess there are secrets in every aspect of life, even the afterlife.
Amen to that.
Damian closed the book and set it to the side. He grabbed his glass of whiskey and wandered over to the window that overlooked the courtyard. The sun was getting brighter by the second, and he could feel the haze from no sleep creeping over him.
His eyes shifted upward, and he saw Rose standing in her kitchen. She was whistling to herself with red eyes, stirring something in a bowl. He couldn’t tell what the ingredients were, but he knew whatever it was, it probably wasn’t safe for human consumption.
Ravi sniffed. You know that old woman Rose is infected, right? It’s so obvious. From what I can sense, her demon is a total wank. He thinks he’s tough, but he can’t even properly control an old lady.
