by Michael Todd
He clicked the phone off and looked at his companion, impressed. “That was quick thinking, Maximus. I like it. Keep that up.”
Max sighed. “It’s Max. Never mind—who cares? So, what’s our next move?”
Damian chewed thoughtfully and leaned back. “Well, I figured we would enjoy our delicious Italian dinner and then take a little drive back to the church when the sun goes down and see what they’re up to.”
The trainee thought for a second. “So, cult activity. Are we talking like goat sacrifices and blood orgies?”
His mentor laughed. “We can only hope to break that kind of party up.”
Max didn’t even know what to say.
Chapter Five
The team headed back toward the church but didn’t go down the long gravel drive. They parked to the side and turned the lights off. The priest looked at Max and slapped him in the chest. “You ready for some reconnaissance, buddy?”
He was super-excited. “Hell…lo. Yes!”
Damian gave him a stern look.
Max laughed. “Hey, I didn’t say it.”
They exited the vehicle, and Damian opened the small duffel Father Trough had handed him at the last second. Inside were about a dozen bibles and nothing else. He shook his head, knowing that the Secretary’d had something to do with that one. It didn’t matter. He had his cross and his bible and the skills he had picked up along the way.
He reached into his pocket and pulled on his gloves. Then he patted his inside leather pocket where his special cross always sat. “Max, I—”
The priest turned and furrowed his brow. The trainee kicked a bush and karate-chopped the leaves. He winced and pulled his hand back when he encountered thorns. This only made him angrier, and he released a muted wail as he turned haphazardly in a circle and back-kicked the shrubbery. He looked more like a mule than a fighter, and Damian had to stifle his laughter.
He stood with his hands on his hips, letting Max get it all out of his system. He kicked and chopped, and knocked branches off the bushes and leaves all over the ground. “It looks like you’ve been practicing. You put a serious hurting on those bushes.”
“I got skills,” the young man said breathlessly as he chopped the bush again with his hands. “Astaroth has been training me hard.”
His demon scoffed. Don’t you put this devastatingly embarrassing show of unsportsmanlike conduct on me. I’m a true student of the martial arts. You look like a cat stuck in a tin box. Or better yet, one of those miniature chihuahuas when you get it all riled up and set it loose.
Max ignored the retort. He looked at Damian as he kicked his leg high and completely missed the bush. “Aren’t you glad you had me train in hand to hand? Imagine if that were a demon.”
The priest tilted his head to the side. “I am. What did that demon ever do to you to deserve such a horrible failure of a beatdown? I think you might distract him long enough with those moves for him to kill himself out of confusion and pity. He may take the opportunity to stab you a few times first and cut one of your legs off. Maybe both, actually.”
The trainee kicked hard at the bush, but his other foot slipped on the soft ground and sent him down onto his butt. Damian shook his head and dropped his satchel and his bible into his lap. “I think tonight maybe you should stick to exorcisms. You don’t want to pull a groin muscle.”
Astaroth snorted. And every other muscle in your body.
Max grumped and pulled the gloves from his pocket as he scrambled to his feet. He hung the satchel over his shoulder and shoved the bible into it. “I need to get, like, a super-outfit or something. I need something that gives me dexterity. Maybe like Katie’s outfit.”
Damian cringed, along with both demons. Ravi spoke first. Oh, for the love of Satan, stop him!
Astaroth laughed loudly. I guess I should get busy growing your junk so you don’t embarrass yourself.
The priest rubbed his face in an effort to suppress his laughter. “Why don’t we get through tonight, and then we can talk about it?”
Max nodded and followed him up the road. That was rude, Astaroth. Just rude.
Not as rude as you in a one-piece spandex suit.
The young priest caught up with Damian and looked at the horizon. “I might not be polished, but I am a lot stronger and more capable in a fight than I was on Incursion Day. I saw a lot of people killed whom I might have been able to save if I’d had this ability then. I saw your team fighting, but I couldn’t join you. By the time I was infected, I had passed out.”
The priest glanced at him. “Any number of things might have changed Incursion Day, but there’s absolutely nothing we can do about it now. My best advice to you is to stop looking at the past. Stop thinking about what could have been done differently or what could have been done better. Living with a ghost of what might have been is far worse than living with regret. You’ll drive yourself crazy with that shit. Trust me, I know. What if I had been ten steps closer? What if I had reached out and stopped my teammate when he lost his shit? He might still be alive today. The thing is, nothing can prepare you for death, and death is the one event none of us can escape.”
Max nodded. “My mom used to tell me that too whenever I went through my what-ifs about school. What if I had studied harder or listened closer? She told me that the present should be my focus, with an eye toward the future. I should never forget the past because it’s where I learn my lessons, but never let myself get buried in it. Accept what happened as final and concrete and move on.”
Damian nodded. “Your mom sounds like a very smart lady. Kind of like me.”
His companion laughed. “So, today was pretty awesome. The Colosseum is still my favorite. I think Pompeii would have been, but I had only just started sorting out fact from fiction, which is my favorite part of it. Did you know that there was a school there? I didn’t know that—”
The older priest stopped suddenly and put his hand up, motioning for him to duck down. They hurried behind a low hedge and looked over the top toward the hill. Several cars were parked in front of the church, and figures walked through the front doors wearing long black hooded robes. They saw people of all ages and backgrounds, and Max recognized a few people from the service earlier.
Damian hunkered down behind the hedge and pulled at Max to do the same. “Let’s make sure they’re all inside before we take a look.”
The trainee gave him a thumbs-up. “Right, boss. We came at the right time.”
They waited in silence for several minutes before they both straightened slowly and peered over the foliage. A man in a black robe stood in the doorway of the church and looked both ways. When he was satisfied, he closed both doors and plunged the parking lot into darkness. Damian nodded, and the two of them slunk along the hedges to the side of the building. They ducked below a window as the candles inside flickered shadows through the glass and across the lawn.
“It’s amazing how this went from a sweet Italian church by day to a scary-as-shi…Shawshank Redemption at night,” Max whispered.
Damian chuckled. “Shawshank Redemption? Really? That was the best you had?”
The young man shrugged. “I felt pressured. It just came out. I’m starting to think you yelling ‘Language’ at me is better than this. Not as fun, but less annoying.”
The priest straightened slowly and peered through the window. The sanctuary was filled with black-robed people. Hanging in front of the crucifix at the front of the church was a long gray silk cloth with a pentagram painted on it in what looked like blood. About a dozen of the leaders of the church circled the front and chanted. A woman, bound and gagged, lay in the center. She trembled and watched them with pure terror. All along the altar and down the rows, black candles flickered eerily.
The sheer number of red eyes in the place cast a ruby glaze over the room. The congregants focused on the front and chanted quietly in Italian, “Hale, nostro padre Satana. Veniamo a te con un altro sacrificio per il nostro esercito. Ti chiamiamo attraverso
le notti più buie. Portaci sangue e vittoria. Portaci i tuoi figli, il tuo respiro. Portaci morti e stanchi.”
Max narrowed his eyes. “What are they saying?”
His mentor listened intently. “Hail, our father, Satan. We come to thee with another sacrifice for our army. We call on you through the darkest of nights. Bring us blood and victory. Bring us your children, your breath. Bring us your dead and weary.”
The young man shivered. “Well, that’s flipping creepy.”
The priest reached into his pocket and pulled out his cross. He set it on the ground and reached into the other small pocket on the opposite side. Max watched as he drew a small pistol hidden there. As the trainee pulled his gloves to make sure they were good and tight, he smiled proudly at the priest. “Hey, great minds think alike.”
Max reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the two daggers Damian had given him. He held them in the air and wiggled his eyebrows. Astaroth was already laughing, knowing the older man would have something smartass to say.
His mentor raised both eyebrows. “So, what you’re saying is you’re going to kick and chop them until you slip and fall, then you’ll throw your knives, hoping that you at least knock one out with the handle?”
Max narrowed his eyes indignantly. “I have to say, I hit the target six times out of ten during practice. That was one of the first times I had used them, too. Give me a few weeks, and I’ll be able to take a demon down from a hundred yards away with one of these bad boys. For now, they are my backup.”
Damian blinked at him. “I would say it sucks that you aren’t skilled enough to have my back, but right now I think it might be a blessing in disguise. I feel like if you had my back tonight, I’d end up with one of those daggers in it by accident.”
His companion gasped. “I would never!”
He patted his shoulder. “Not on purpose, I’m sure. But you would definitely do it accidentally. Do me a favor and throw away from me. Don’t try to be a hero.”
Max sulked but nodded in understanding. “Where to now?”
Damian turned his attention to the window, ducked, and pressed his back against the building. He put his gun in his holster and picked up his cross. “Well, I think of it this way…why sneak in the back when you can bust in through the front doors? Give them a little shock before we take them down.”
The young man clapped enthusiastically. “Hell, yeah. Beast mode commences.”
The priest nodded, turned to move, then fixed his companion with a glare. Max looked at him, waiting for him to say something important. Damian patted him on the shoulder with a mocking look. “Language.”
His shoulders and expression dropped as the older man chuckled to himself and strode toward the front of the building. They reached the entrance and straightened. The trainee looked at Damian with wide eyes. “Oh, please, let me do some awesome shizz and kick this door in.”
His mentor chuckled. “How about we do it together? It’s a big-ass door. On the count of three. One, two, three!”
They lifted their legs and kicked the door simultaneously as hard as they could. Both were a little shocked by the power behind their action as the door flew off its hinges and knocked out four infected in its journey down the center aisle. The ceremony ceased abruptly, and the entire congregation turned to look at them. For a long moment, silence reigned.
Damian lifted his cross into the air. “Who’s up for a little exorcism, motherfuckers?”
Demons leapt from the pews, hissing defiance. The priest moved to the right, and his companion to the left. They each grabbed the first demons they saw and held their crosses in their faces. In unison, they intoned their exorcism prayer. “Caelum Domino in die qua invocaverimus te. Hanc daemonis ad profundum inferni. Parcere animae permittere interius gratiam liberetur. Nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti.”
Both demons emerged from the bodies and rose into the air, where they screeched and shouted before they burst into balls of light and ash. The two men exchanged quick smiles as they moved down the aisle, systematically knocking demons down with each step. The young priest grabbed a demon off the wall and slammed him onto the floor while he shouted the exorcism. This time, he didn’t wait for the creature to erupt before moving on to the next. As he progressed through them, one jumped from the pews and landed on his back.
Max pulled his knife and flipped it over in his hand to stab backward. He could feel the blade go in, and when he pulled it out, the beast fell to the floor where it wriggled and writhed until it flew back to the depths of hell. The body reformed, now dead on the floor. He tried not to look and turned away to exorcise another he held down.
On the other side of the room, Damian was a little less liberal with whom he saved. Then again, at one point he had two demons on his back and one on his leg as he exorcised a fourth. He drew his gun, shot the creature on his leg in the forehead, and pushed the body off before it burst into ash. Reaching behind him, he grabbed one of the demons from his back and held him firmly as he spoke the exorcism. The one still on his back continued to harass him, although he managed to avoid the worst blows.
Finally, when he was done, he reached back again and yanked the beast loose. “Motherfucker, I—”
The words cut off abruptly when he looked into the face of a sixteen-year-old boy taken over by hell. He blinked at him for a second, pulled his cross up, and repeated the exorcism over and over again with no success. He shook the boy hard. “Come on, kid. Fucking man up!”
Max looked across the room and saw that Damian needed some help. Otherwise, it would be his mentor’s body he would carry out at the end.
Chapter Six
Damian felt his emotions get the best of him as he shook the kid. He could see Ethan’s face in the infected youth. Even though he knew the boy was no longer there, he could see the anguish in his eyes. On some level, he knew he had to fight himself and let go, but he was somehow stuck in a frozen tundra of emotional distress. Ravi yelled at him, but her voice sounded a million miles away. A demon jumped on his shoulders, but he didn’t care. All he wanted was for the unknown boy to come back.
“Come on, kid. Don’t give up.” He jolted as a dagger slammed into the back of the youth’s head.
He stood there frozen until the body turned to dust in his hands. As the ash cleared from the air, he saw Max on one of the pews. He hopped down and ran up to ram his elbow into the demon on Damian’s back. The beast fell to the floor, and the trainee slashed his other knife across its throat.
“You okay?” he asked.
Damian swallowed and nodded. “Yeah, I’m okay. I got this.”
His companion smiled. “Let’s finish up then, shall we? There aren’t that many left, and we need to find the leader and save his ass— I don’t even have a good one for that.”
The priest chuckled, snapped out of his haze, and turned to run toward a group at the front of the church. Ravi softened her tone. You all right? I completely lost you there for a second. You froze.
I’m fine. Just help me get this over with. He shook her off.
She smirked. I can definitely handle that one, Pops.
Damian threw himself into the battle. He grabbed demons, threw them down, and held his cross in their faces as he repeated the exorcism prayer over and over. Flashes of light erupted throughout the church as the infected were exorcised and left unconscious on the floor. Across the room, Max slammed his elbow into a demon’s chin and knocked him unconscious.
He exorcised him and then stood, looking for the next one. Astaroth was incredibly impressed. What you did back there for Damian took balls, kid. I like it. You are growing stronger by leaps and bounds.
The young priest threw a demon over the pew, jumped on top of him, and yelled the prayer. Thanks. Can we maybe talk about that later? Got like two demons left to deal with. We should be almost done.
The demon gave Max a surge of energy. Hell, yeah, I can do that. Let’s finish this shish kebab up.
He laughed and
grabbed one of the leaders from the front and threw him into the pentagram. As he bellowed the exorcism prayer, the symbol began to shimmer and evaporate. The demon rose high and snatched at the cloth as it squirmed and writhed above Max. He grew brighter and brighter before he burst and spiraled through the dimensions into the fiery pits below.
The trainee looked around. It took a moment before he realized there weren’t any more demons in the room. Slowly, Damian joined him and stuck out his hand for a fist-bump. They stood there in silence until the priest cleared his throat. “Thanks for back there. I kind of got stuck in a memory.”
Max shook his head. “Don’t mention it. You’ve done it for me. I just prayed I didn’t throw a dagger into your head instead. Probably a good thing I sneezed when I threw it.”
The priest’s eyes grew wide, and he looked at the young priest with something close to horror.
He burst into laughter. “Just kidding, bro. You should have seen the look on your face, though.”
Damian rubbed his eyes and smirked. “Where is the leader?”
The young man looked at all the people unconscious on the floor. “I didn’t get him. Figured you did.”
His mentor shook his head. “I don’t think so. If I did, I didn’t recognize him. Come on, let’s look through the people to make sure. I know none of the ones we killed were him.”
They hurried through the church and searched the people lying there face by face. They untied the young woman who was to have been the sacrifice and laid her on a pew. Neither was able to find the head priest. When they reached the front of the church once again, Max shook his head. “He’s not here. He wasn’t in the room during all this.”
Damian growled his annoyance. “What should we do? Should we go looking for him? I know these weren’t all the demons in the church, and he might not even have a clue what is going on. We don’t need the others to find out what has happened and kill the man before we can find him.”
