A Soul in Torment

by D. J Marteeny

  “Noooo!” screamed the driver in anguish as he realized the animal was dead.

  Lucifer stared at the scene of chaos unfolding before him; a smirk on his face as passers-by came running to the driver’s aid.

  “Wicked,” was all Lilly said as she thrust her hand through Lucifer’s arm.

  “That’s my middle name,” he whispered as the couple turned to go.

  They continued walking until they reached an area of Central Park known as Strawberry fields. Located on the west side of the park between 71st and 74th streets, this area of the park was a favorite haunt of former Beatle, John Lennon. The Field was dedicated as a memorial in his honor in 1981 after he was gunned down in front of his home by a crazed fan. Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, made a donation after his death to maintain the 2.5 acres where a large black and white mosaic bearing only one word—IMAGINE—was constructed in his memory. To this day fans come bringing flowers and candles to honor the man known for his efforts to promote peace as well as his musical talents.

  As the couple walked past the mosaic, a large sandstone building across the street came into view. Lucifer’s mind drifted back to a day that will live in infamy in most people’s minds. The death of John Lennon was a tragedy—at least to anyone who possessed a soul. But to the evil that is Lucifer, it was one of his greatest triumphs. He could see the scene unfolding as if it were happening today.

  Mark David Chapman approaching this very building, shouting to a dark form standing on the steps before him. In Chapman’s deranged mind the figure takes on the image of the Angel of Death coming to claim his soul. He raises his hand—pulls the trigger—and the rest of the story is a tragic part of history. Lennon died and his music was silenced forever.

  Lucifer snapped his mind back to the present. That fool, Chapman, may have had his own agenda that day but he was serving me—and he didn’t even realize it. But he’ll find out at the end of his days when he comes home—to me and his final reward. Lu thought with a deep sigh.

  “What’s wrong, lover, are we not happy—or is it just boredom?” the woman beside him asked.

  “No, my lovely she-devil, it’s frustration. There’s a wealth of evil to serve me here in this city and I just can’t seem to come up with the right plan to accomplish my latest task.”

  “Are we back to our delectable vampire priest again? Stop worrying, lover— I told you I’ll handle it. My spies are everywhere searching for him. Besides—you need to be as far away from the night walker as possible when we do find him. That way we won’t have to worry about a certain angel…” she said staring at him meaningfully, “…interfering again. I have a plan— but my job would be a lot easier if I could make that bastard, Samael, see reason. You know, you could give me some help in that matter. After all he is your brother. He’ll listen to you where as—sometimes he tends to ignore me if he thinks he can get away with it—and I need those hounds. Can you ask him to bring them to you—for me?” she said foolishly thinking her feminine wiles would work on the man beside her.

  Lucifer looked at her with a raised eyebrow, “Flirting—with me—pleassse, my dear. And why should I ask him for something that’s already mine? The Hounds of Hell belong to me and it still hasn’t been made clear to me why they’re working for my brother.” Lu said and there was no mistaking the question in his voice.”

  “What—you think I know? That feathery fool sure as hell wouldn’t tell me what he’s up too. And I wouldn’t ask him. He’d lie to my face just to spite me.”

  “Yes—you’re right about that—sorry, my dear. Sometimes my brother can be a little difficult. Samael always was under the mistaken impression that he has to answer to no-one. He wears the title ‘Angel of Death’ like a crown. I’ve found that, with him, brute force doesn’t always work. No, to get what we want from him will take cunning—a little trickery even. Once again, my dear, it’s all about the game. Come on; let’s see if he’s hiding at home.”

  “I’ll never understand why he decided to take up residence here. There are so many other, more suitable, places for his kind to live in a city such as this,” the woman said.

  “It’s what this building has come to stand for that attracts him.” Lucifer explained as they approached the sandstone building that combined German gothic, French Renaissance and English Victorian architecture.

  “Good day, Jefferson.” Lucifer said to the doorman/security guard standing in front of the apartment building known as The Dakota. “Is he here?”

  “Yes, my lord.”

  “Good—we’re going up.”

  “Yes, sir,” the doorman said as he unlocked the wrought iron gate that blocked the entrance to the building.

  Turning back to Lilith, Lucifer said, “We’ll find my brother and get this ball rolling—whether he likes it or not. The longer it takes us to come up with a workable plan, the more time we give the priest to form—attachments. We have to strike while he’s still weak and, trust me; he won’t be that way for long. If he should stumble across any of the forces that are presently aligning against us—well, let’s just say it will make my job a lot harder and I won’t be happy. I like things to flow smoothly—easily— so I agree with you, my love—we need the hounds. If anyone can sniff out the priest they can and the sooner he’s found the sooner we can strike. For now, he prefers his solitude which makes him an easy target. He has no idea of our plans for him. Alone, he has no chance against the power we’ll be sending against him but, trust me when I say—we’re not the only ones interested in our vampire priest.

  * * * * *

  Evangeline Meredeloupe sat sipping a caramel latte at one of New York City’s many outdoor cafes. She was tall and lean, dark jeans covering strong, well muscled legs, an attribute that came in handy in her line of work. Evangeline, Eva to her friends, was a New York City police detective. And she was one of the city’s finest even though she looked like she should be walking on a fashion runway instead of carrying a gun.

  Her long hair, sandy brown with blond highlights, complimented her high cheek bones, the only remnants of an Asian heritage long forgotten. Large hazel/green eyes surveyed her surroundings as Eva took another drink from the large paper cup. God, I love this town, she thought as she sat back to watch the multitude of busy New Yorkers scrambling to start their workday. This was her home although she wasn’t born here.

  Her father had moved to the big city after her mother had died giving birth to her. He never talked about the incident. It was hard enough for him when he’d finally had to tell his young daughter but he felt he owed Evangeline an explanation as to why it was him and her against the world. Evangeline longed to question him further about the mother she never knew but the pain, or was it fear, that filled his eyes always stopped her. And now it was too late since her father had died too.

  His loss was devastating to Evangeline. She’d loved the man who was both a father and mother to her. He, too, had been a cop and the reason she’d followed in his footsteps after he was killed in the line of duty. She vowed then that she would make him proud and rid the streets of New York of as many scumbags as she could and, so far at least, she’d done it. “Alright Evangeline…” she said, shaking her head to clear her thoughts, “… enough reminiscing. You’re getting a bit maudlin and it’s a beautiful fall day—and your day off—so start enjoying it.” There was a slight chill in the air this morning but to Evangeline it was invigorating and she had nothing on her agenda all day today except to relax for a while. So why was she feeling so edgy?

  Her head jerked to the right as a police car, red lights flashing, siren blaring sped by trying to maneuver its steel bulk through the ever growing sea of cars, buses and people. Something’s up. I should follow them. But the minute the thought entered her head it was joined by a dark image. The stern face of Shaniqua Taylor, super detective, friend and Evangeline’s self appointed mother figure, appeared in Eva’
s mind, their conversation of last evening still ringing in her ears.

  “Oh no you won’t, girl. You are not and I repeat—not—needed on the stakeout tomorrow. It’s your day off and you will take it. Al and I are more than capable of leaning against a vacant building while we keep an eye on that little weasel and his druggie friends. Come on, Eva—you trained us yourself—what can happen that would get by us?” Shaniqua asked, her teeth flashing white in her dark face as she gave Evangeline her best smile. “Be reasonable, honey. You haven’t had a real day off in —oh hell, I don’t even remember the last time. You’re not going to be any good to us as our fearless leader if you crash during the middle of this investigation soooo—you will take tomorrow off. Get up in the morning and go for a relaxing walk or do some shopping. Later you can get a nice hot cup of that swill you call coffee and forget about the drug trade just for twenty-four short little hours. Better yet, call one of the many guys in the squad that would love to take you out and have some hot passionate sex. There’s nothing like it for relieving the stress of a job like ours. Take my word for it.” Shaniqua said with a wide grin. “Besides, Al and I are veterans. We’ve been hunting down the scum in this city a lot longer than you have.” Shaniqua leaned closer to Eva’s ear and whispered, “Even if you did make captain before either of us.”

  “Shaniqua…” Evangeline started to protest but the detective stopped her.

  “I’m teasing you, girl, and you know it. No-one was more proud the day you received your promotion than Al and I. You’ve got brains, beauty and skill—the whole package. But most of all you’ve got it here…”Shaniqua’s hand settled gently over Evangeline’s heart as she finished, “…the love of the game, the thrill of the hunt. It’s in your blood, you can’t help it. Your father was one of the best damn detectives this precinct has ever seen and you inherited that from him. But even he knew when to take a day off so…”

  Evangeline came back to the present with a start. She knew her friends were right. She did have a tendency to get so wrapped up in what she was doing that she forgot there was a whole other world out there interacting with her own. Shaniqua would like nothing better than for Eva to find a man, get married and have a dozen kids and sometimes, when the stress of the job became too much for her or she saw one too many kids being gunned down in the streets for selling drugs because they couldn’t make a living any other way, she almost felt the same way. What I need is for some tall, dark, handsome stranger to sweep me off my feet and change my life forever but that’s not likely to happen anytime soon. So, instead, she’d sit here and drink her coffee and relax instead of being with her team, on a stake out, trying to close this blasted case they’d been working on forever! With a deep sigh, she took another sip of the now cold liquid.

  “Why can’t I shake this feeling that something big is going down and I really should be out there?” she said aloud. At that precise moment two more black and white’s screamed down the street. Evangeline jumped to her feet. Awe, hell, something’s definitely happening, she thought and, as she noticed the direction the cruisers were heading, “…and it’s happening on my side of town. Sorry guys but my day off’s over. I’m coming to join you.” And just as she headed for the shiny black Camaro she’d managed to maneuver into a crowed parking space earlier that morning, her phone went off. Pulling it from her pocket she said, “Okay, talk to me,” as she jumped inside the car.

  Chapter 3

  The black Escalade traveled swiftly along the road, its bright headlights cutting through the darkness like a knife slicing through butter. On either side of the highway were trees, thousands of them stretching out across the surface of the mountains for miles, their thick foliage rising high into the night sky. If someone wanted to disappear for awhile this was surely the place to do it, Rick thought as he sat in the back seat trying to memorize every inch of the route Roy was taking. His senses remained on high alert as he watched the two people sitting quietly in front of him. The couple hadn’t spoken since they’d left the Inn. It was almost as if they knew that, no matter how low they talked, their passenger could hear every word so they remained silent.

  It had occurred to Rick that he could be walking straight into a trap. Maybe they were taking him out to some god forsaken place in the woods to kill him and dispose of his body and no-one would be the wiser. Would that really be so bad, he thought as despair, once again, threatened to overwhelm him. But then, as it always seemed to do when his emotions were at their lowest point, the beast within him roared to life, its survival instincts taking control. His fangs were ready to rip and tear at anything that might threaten him and his eyes, a deep and beautiful brown in human form, switched to blood red as he lowered his lashes to keep them hidden. The vampire was biding its time as the last shred of humanity still inside of Rick tried to keep things in check until he was certain he was really in danger.

  Rick’s mind played with a multitude of scenarios as the SUV suddenly made a sharp turn to the right, pulling into a gravel driveway. The vehicle continued on down the road until an old farmhouse came into view. This doesn’t look much like a cabin to me, Rick thought as his vampire screamed out a warning in his suspicious mind. Where are you taking me, Jaclyn, and what are you really up too? A few minutes more—that’s all I’ll give you and your sidekick. You’d better come up with a cabin by then or I’ll… but Rick’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the breathtaking sight that met his eyes.

  “We’re here.” Jaclyn said in a quiet voice as she gave him time to take it all in before turning to look at her passenger. Rick, his emotions in check, his appearance back to normal, stared in awe at the sight before him. “Beautiful isn’t it? Jaclyn said with a smile as Roy came around to open her door. Jumping out of the car, she said, “You coming?” to Rick as she headed down a long cement sidewalk that led halfway across a sloped lawn to stop directly in front of the most inviting little cabin Rick had ever seen.

  Climbing out of the car, any sense of danger the vampire may have been feeling, totally disappeared as Rick gazed in awe at the beauty surrounding him. He was at the top of a slight hill, with a barn and an old wooden work shop directly behind him. Moving forward, he took two steps down onto the same cement sidewalk Jaclyn had just followed. This pathway flowed straight as an arrow, glowing like a white ribbon by the light of the moon. It came to a stop just before a small wooden bridge that led to the front porch of the actual cabin. On either side of the wooden porch and surrounding the cabin itself, were dozens of wildflowers of different sizes and colors. A dry creek bed maneuvered its way between the blossoms, flowing down past the front porch straight into a small man-made pond. Off in the distance was a small lake surrounded by trees and more flowers with a majestic mountain rising high into the sky directly behind the shimmering water.

  As Rick approached the couple waiting patiently for him on the front porch, the howling of a lone wolf could be heard coming from somewhere up on the mountain itself. A chill ran down Rick’s spine, his sharp eyes catching the look that passed between Roy and Jaclyn as the howling waned, slipping into utter silence. Turning slowly, Roy let himself into the cabin and, in a few seconds, a light was turned on.

  He emerged again with a kerosene lamp which he handed to Jaclyn. “I’ll be leaving now,” he told her, his strange rust colored eyes going from his boss to Rick and back again. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” he said as he brushed his lips lightly against her cheek. He nodded slightly as he walked past Rick and, within minutes, the SUV’s engine roared to life and Roy was gone. As the truck drove out of sight the wolf’s howl was heard again and this time there was an answering call.

  Rick turned towards the source of the sound, his hands clenching into fists as his sharp eyes scoured the darkness. Chilling memories of horrendous were-beasts—large, black and lethal—flooded his mind. But, sensing nothing close by, he turned back to the woman on the porch. “It might be a little late to ask this quest
ion but…” he continued, “…do you have a wolf problem in this area?”

  “Nothing we can’t handle. Why, you’re not—frightened—of wolves are you, Rick?

  “What—no—it’s just that the ones I’ve had the misfortune to come across in the past have not been very—friendly—and that tends to make me cautious. And, from the sounds of it, there seems to be a lot of them around here. Should I be concerned?”

  “No— so you can put your mind at ease. The wolves you’re hearing are not dangerous—as long as you, or anyone else, don’t pose a threat to them and their way of life. They’re— protectors to those of us who will utilize their particular skills. I don’t know what sort of wolves you’ve been in contact with, Mr. Franco, but all the ones I’ve ever known wouldn’t bother anyone unless, of course, they’re—provoked. ”

  “Well, if they leave me alone I’ll be happy to extend the same courtesy to them.”

  “Then you should all get along just fine but—I have to ask—if you’re that skittish around the local wildlife why do you want to stay out here in the wilderness—in a cabin instead of the Inn or a hotel. That seems a little strange.”

  “It’s only been recently that I’ve had to make some changes in my life and getting back to nature is something I’ve always wanted to try…” he explained when he saw the questioning look on Jaclyn’s face, “…but never had the time or opportunity.”

  “Hmm, you’re a very—interesting— man, Rick Franco. I’m looking forward to getting to know you better.”