by Michael Todd
He put the pie on the table and shook his hand. The black goatee and long black hair made him look like some foul villain from Harry Potter. “Nice to meet you. I’m Abraham, a long-time friend of Damian here.”
Max nodded. “I’m Max. Damian is my mentor.”
Abraham laughed. “Oh, yeah? Look at that—from a scared young kid to a teacher. I like it.”
Damian didn’t give Max a chance to resolve his growing confusion. He grabbed his arm and shoved him gently but firmly out the room.
“Change and come out when you’re ready to leave,” he whispered. “I have to take care of this. There’s no point in you getting involved with him. Whatever he is here for, it’s bound to be beyond the scope of a priest. It’s a long story.”
Max nodded and entered his room. “If you need me, let me know.”
He smiled at the young man and shut the door. Abraham sat at the table, and Damian chose a chair opposite him. The older man held a brass ball from the shelves in his hand and tossed it up and down.
The priest hadn’t seen this coming, and he was a little disgruntled by the intrusion. “You think maybe you could’ve called first, or even waited outside instead of breaking through the door?”
Abraham chuckled arrogantly. “Looks like somebody’s lost his sense of humor in his old age.”
“Why does everybody keep saying I’m old? I’m not fucking old.” He didn’t bother to hide his exasperation.
His visitor lifted an eyebrow at his response. “Sounds like you’ve been arguing with your demon. I’ve learned from experience that it’s not good to do that. Did you know they have the ability to literally pluck your damn nerves? I’m talking playing them like a harp. It’s not the most comfortable thing in the world.”
Damian leaned forward, grabbed the ball in midair, and set it down hard on the table. “It’s also not good to break into someone’s house after not seeing them or speaking to them for over a decade, Abraham. Not to mention that the last time I saw you, you and your girlfriend were being chased down the main strip of Vegas by a pack of pissed-off demons. Those same demons stopped and threw a bus full of old people three blocks in an attempt to hit you. You cost a lot of lives that day, then, poof, you were gone. No accountability, no thanks for cleaning up your mess, no explanation, nothing.”
“It was a wild day, that was for sure. I didn’t see that rift coming, and we were swarmed by demons apparently coming out of nowhere. We had to run. Really didn’t have any other choice.”
The priest looked at him in amazement. “How about the opposite direction, in which you didn’t put people’s lives at risk? And again, you simply disappeared like a Vegas magician.”
Abraham sighed and leaned forward in his chair, his face serious. “I’m sorry about that, but I kind of went off the grid. I needed to. I knew it would just be a matter of time until I walked into the wrong infestation.”
Behind them, Max cleared his throat as he opened his bedroom door and stepped out. He walked over to the table and looked at Abraham for a moment before turning to Damian. “I assuming you’re not coming with me?”
The priest shook his head. “Not right now. Be careful. I’ll throw the pie away later.”
The trainee patted him on the shoulder. “Thanks. If you need me, you know how to get hold of me.”
Abraham had stood again and was examining the shelves. Max glared at him before he headed out. The older man picked up one of the pictures on the shelf and dusted it with his arm. “Who are these people?”
Damian rubbed his face. “I don’t know. The priest before us left all his stuff here.”
His visitor glanced up. “He retire?”
He rolled his eyes and pushed himself from the chair. “Yes, but not to Tahiti. More like to the local crematorium.”
Abraham grimaced and returned the picture to the shelf. “I have to say, man, I’m really proud of you. You’ve come a long way. I was shocked when I heard you left the mercs. What was it—like fifteen years or something? Shit, that’s dedication, and a really good streak of luck.”
Damian simply stared at him. “Or the grace of God.”
The man chuckled, looked at a book, and put it back. “You know I don’t subscribe to that mumbo-jumbo. I simply don’t get the whole ‘speaking in tongues and playing with snakes’ thing.”
The priest scowled in annoyance. “That’s not my church. We don’t do either of those things. I would think that by now you would know that.”
Abraham turned toward him with a thoughtful expression. “Me and you, we really did have some fun times. We kicked some major demon ass, too. It feels like it was about a million years ago, and not even in this lifetime.”
Damian moved to rest his hands on the back of the chair facing the fire. “It was the past, and it will stay there. I did some seriously foolish shit back then.”
His companion laughed and pointed a bony finger at him. “You remember the time with that old lady and her oxygen tank? Boom—”
The priest raised his hand to cut him off. “Abraham! Cut to the chase. What the hell is going on? I know you didn’t come here to shoot the shit with me. You’ve never been that guy.”
Abraham bit the inside of his lip in a nervous gesture. “They took my wife, and I don’t know if she’s still alive.”
Chapter Eleven
The house was silent except for the crackle of the fire and the tap of the man’s boots as he paced back and forth in the living room. He clenched his hands behind his back, a grim look in his eyes. Damian had never seen him like that, which was one of the main reasons he continued to listen. In all the years he had known him, he only ever saw him care about killing demons, nothing else. This look told him a completely different story.
Abraham sighed and held his hands behind his head as he walked. The priest could see the outline of his ribs beneath his shirt. He hadn’t been taking care of himself, obviously.
He began to explain from the beginning. “It came down to the fact that I’d had enough of the business. It wasn’t fun for me anymore, and I craved quiet and normal. I wanted a break, but unfortunately, we can’t merely put in for a vacation in our world. I was tired of being on my own even though I still had to explain every decision I made to the government, who got more and more involved.”
Damian was surprised. “You hadn’t met your wife yet?”
Abraham shook his head. “No, not until about three months later. I had nomaded around, enjoying the beauty that the world had to offer. Downtown in Baton Rouge one night, there was a small incursion. It was in my blood, so I jumped in with the mercs there and started helping. That’s when I met Elizabeth. I mean, you met her before. She was gorgeous, feisty, smart, and everything I never knew I wanted in a woman. She softened me.”
Damian could see it, but he wasn’t about to say anything to the man. Marriage, life, and death…it either softened or hardened you. He had apparently gotten stronger, but from the tired bags under the other man’s eyes and the way the shadows crept across his aging face, he could tell that Abraham was on the cusp of letting go. Every man had their breaking point, and his visitor was close to his.
The older man leaned his shoulder against the mantle and stared into the fire. “Me and Elizabeth, we had the same thoughts on life. She was tired of the fight, not because she didn’t care but because, like me, she had done her share and had put her life on the line. We both wanted out, and a chance to have a piece of that happy pie the rest of humanity has. I persuaded her to leave it all and come with me. We had only known each other for all of three days at that point, but there was no denying that we were created from the same mold. We were meant for each other.”
Damian sighed. “So you simply left.”
Abraham smiled to himself. “Yes. We got married and settled down in a small town, bought a house, and lived our lives. We cooked dinner every night, put a Christmas tree up in December, took summer vacations, and did everything else that we hadn’t been able to do. It was lik
e our world was exactly what we wanted.”
“And your demons?” the priest asked.
Abraham shrugged, his expression guarded. “She didn’t have one. She was a volunteer, and I suppressed mine. That’s why my body looks so rough. He’s not helping me. I learned how to push him down as far as he could possibly go. We wanted a life together, and we didn’t want to be forced to share it with anyone else. That’s what infection does—it forces you to share your life.”
Damian took a sip of the whiskey he had poured before Abraham had started to explain. “Okay, I can understand wanting a real life, and God knows you and Elizabeth did enough in your lifetimes to not let the demons take over. I wonder, though, how you stayed off the grid for so long. No one came looking for you?”
His companion stared at the picture over the fireplace. “No one came looking for me because I was a rogue fighter. People tried to pull Elizabeth back, but when it came down to it, she didn’t have to fight, and her merc family wouldn’t kill her. After Incursion Day, we finally breathed a deep sigh of relief. It was okay for infected to lead normal lives as long as they didn’t affect anyone else. They didn’t have to be mercs. Everyone forgot about us, and that was what we wanted—to feel safe and secure in our lives.”
The priest shook his head and sighed. “And these demons who took your wife? You hadn’t run into them anywhere along the way?”
Abraham chuckled bitterly. “You know that during my fighting time I pissed off a lot of people and a lot of demons, and I bent more than my share of rules. There’s always a possibility it goes back to something I did years ago, but after we left, we never encountered a demon or an incursion. We kept to ourselves. I can’t remember a single time since we left Baton Rouge that we even exchanged negative words with someone, much less pissed off a cult of Satan worshippers. The people who took my wife were messengers of a demon. Unfortunately, I have no clue which one.”
Damian stood and poured the man a drink. “What happened when they took her?”
He was silent for a moment, and his expression flashed through a variety of emotions. “I went to the market to get something for dinner. It was like any other day. Elizabeth was baking bread—she loves baking. Anyway, I got home, kissed her, and went to put the groceries away. Not even five minutes later, there was a loud bang and infected dressed in robes flooded into the place. I tried to fight, but three of them grabbed me and threw me to the floor. I was too weak by that time. The main guy had punched me hard in the face and kicked me in the stomach.”
The old man looked away and rubbed his stomach as if he could remember the pain. “I turned on my side and watched as they dragged Elizabeth kicking and screaming from the house. One demon stood on my back. When she disappeared out the door, it hit me on the back of the head with something hard. All I can remember is everything going black. When I woke up hours later, it was dark, blood from my head had pooled on the floor, and the front door stood wide open. I’ve seen enough cults in my day to know they were part of a big one.”
Damian rubbed his chin thoughtfully and finished his whiskey. “They didn’t come when she was alone but waited for you to arrive. And it was only five minutes afterward, which means they planned it that way. It feels damn personal, like whoever orchestrated this wanted you to see it happen. You might be walking into a trap.”
Abraham gritted his teeth. “Trap or not, I won’t leave my wife there. It’s my responsibility to protect her. After I cleaned up, I contacted an old friend who found you for me, and I came straight here.”
The priest hadn’t realized until that moment how fresh the whole thing was to his companion. He could now see the bruises and the blood caked in his hair. Most likely, he hadn’t slept, just left immediately to find him. He took the man’s empty glass, refilled it, and handed it to him with a smile. “I think we both need this right about now. I’m sorry that this happened to you. I’m sorry this happened to Elizabeth. The two of you were looking for a sanctuary, and you were robbed of that. It’s not fair, whichever way you look at it.”
The older man sat and leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and his whiskey clutched in a trembling hand. The priest stared at the floor for a moment, simply waiting until Abraham was ready to continue. The older man glanced at Damian, his expression drawn and tense. “You gotta help me, man. You’re the only one I know who can help in this situation. The mercs will want to take over, and they won’t view her as precious cargo. She’s the only thing I have in this world—the only pure and amazing thing that has ever loved me in return. I can’t leave her there to die. I can’t give in or give up. I need you, Damian.”
He shifted in his seat and sighed. “This is a damn horrible situation. Honestly, it’s the first time I’ve ever heard of a merc targeted in their own home. That makes it a red flag, and a big one.”
Abraham nodded. “So you’ll help me?”
Damian wanted to say yes, but he had a duty to the church. “It’s not as easy as it used to be, Abraham. I’m not a merc anymore. I no longer have freedom of choice, I go where I’m assigned. That’s the gist of it. I work directly for the church now, and when I tell you that they watch me, trust me, they watch me. They will know if I do something independently. I can, however, put you in touch with people who will be able to help you. I would trust them with my life.”
His visitor growled and slammed his glass on the side table. “I don’t want help from the damn mercs. They’ll systematically turn this into a witch hunt, with my wife considered collateral damage. They can’t be trusted, Damian. You know that. You may have a badass one in Katie, but other than that… I’m sorry, buddy, but I don’t trust them. It has to be me who goes in there, with someone who knows how important the rescue is.”
The priest groaned and threw his hands up. “I honestly don’t know how it could be possible.”
Abraham shook his head. “Make it possible. I chose you to help me because you’re the best. On top of that, I know that if my wife has been infected during this whole hellish nightmare, I can count on you to bring her back. To exorcise her.”
Damian winced as a trickle of alarm raced through him. “It’s not always that simple, Abraham. It all depends on when she was infected, and how strongly the demon has taken over. Some humans can’t be saved from the infestation, so we kill them and let their ashes return to the earth. Even if I am there, it doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll be able to help her. I don’t want you to have high hopes when we’re walking into a situation we don’t even know the half of.”
The man looked at him with despair. “But there is hope that you can, right?”
He exhaled a slow, deep breath. “Sure, but I’m not a miracle worker. There are things that are far beyond my control. Some, unfortunately, don’t turn out the way we want them to, or even in a way that’s fair.”
Abraham pointed his finger at him. “Do you remember that night like thirteen years ago in Vegas when we chased those infected showgirls down? They were falling apart at the seams, and we killed all but one. You swore that last one was too far gone, but you tried anyway. I was ready to kill her, but you wouldn’t let me. Instead, you brought her back from the brink of death. She survived, even with the damage that the demon had done. It is possible, Damian.”
Despite his reservations, he couldn’t avoid the truth. “It’s possible, yes, but it’s not probable. We’d be walking into a dangerous situation without backup, and I hate to say this but—”
His companion stood abruptly. “No. Don’t even say the words. I know what you think—that she’s already dead or done for. She spent years fighting demons without becoming infected, and now she may die from what she avoided for so long. She can’t heal herself like you can.”
Damian studied his glass, his thoughts rampaging. “I want you to be prepared for the fact that not every situation is the same.”
Abraham fell back into the chair and stared desperately at him. “Please, I’m begging you with everything I have. Don’t let
her die. Don’t let us both die. You know that if you don’t help me, I’ll still go on my own. I’ve fought demons before, and these guys are tough. With the right numbers, they could take me straight down to hell. I need this one last favor from you. You must know that I’d never have come if it wasn’t absolutely necessary. If I’d had anywhere else to turn, I would have left you alone. God knows you’ve done enough for me over the years.”
The priest rubbed his chin, hating that he couldn’t simply agree. A mission of this magnitude would be almost impossible to keep secret. The church would find out about his involvement, and they wouldn’t be happy.
He noticed that his demon was attentive but silent, and he needed her input. What do you think, Ravi? Should I do this?
She sniffed her disapproval. I, of course, am not too excited about the idea of rolling into a cult den with only the two of you. We don’t have the manpower or the weapons to make this situation safe. At the same time, though, I can’t help but wonder who this large demon is who has targeted your friend.
Damian scoffed. Knowing him it could be anyone, but for some reason, I trust him when he says he hasn’t been in any squabbles lately.
Ravi considered it for a second. I can still smell the demon on Abraham. It’s not any scent I’ve encountered before, even in hell. I don’t know what to make of it, really. I wasn’t aware that they were hiding demons down there that none of us knew about. Still, I can’t say I’m surprised.
He waited for her to continue.
Her sigh sounded disappointed. The truth is, we need to know who these demons are, what the cult is, and where it’s all going. Fighting with Abraham might ease your conscience, and at the same time give you some real insight into what is happening out there. It might be in your best interests to do this for him. Plus, I can tell he used to be a warrior, and that’s not a bad thing to have in your Rolodex. It might be worth the blood.
