He began to pace around her, long strings of gibberish coming out in feverish growls.
Speaking in tongues….
What was he saying—or, more specifically, what did he think he was saying? Whatever it was, his words were filled with emotion. He turned to the dark corner.
She followed his line of sight, finding the shadow. Was it trying to mask itself? Did it think it could hide its spirit from her? What did he see when he looked at it? There was no way he saw what she did.
What was it? She'd never seen a demon take that kind of form before.
A djinn.
Would there be any convincing the man that this creature was tricking him? Was there any possible way to make him see it for what it was?
Hershel stopped in front of her again and leaned in to view her at eye level. "I'm going to ask you again: What is your name?"
She held her tongue.
"Tell me!"
She turned away.
He turned back to the shadow. "No, I don't—" He sighed then said, his voice deeper and sterner, "I'm only going to ask you once more: What's your name, demon?"
She held her silence.
With an angry cry, he punched her squarely in the sternum, knocking the wind out of her. "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, get out of her!"
She gasped in an attempt to catch her breath.
"Get out of her, Asmodeus!"
When she didn't respond, he punched her again in the gut. "Get out of her, Beelzebub!"
Another pause.
"Get out of her, Legion!" Another punch. "Get out of her, Coller!" And again. "Get out of her, Mormo!" And again. "Get out of her, Azazel!"
She coughed, heavy spasms freezing her lungs.
"Tell me your name!" he screamed.
She shook her head, straining to take in a decent breath.
He grabbed her by the face, forcing her to look at him. "Don't make me keep guessing! I don't want to hurt this poor girl. I know you're hurting with her. Please don't make me start breaking bones."
Drew cried out, forcing in a strained gasp.
"Please don't make me," he tried again, his grip tightening and his fingers pressing into her cheeks.
She closed her eyes, doing her best to concentrate. She felt the darkness in his soul reaching for hers, and she used that as a bridge between them. Her lungs relaxed and she breathed in, pulling at his life force.
Very little came.
Concentrate….
A little more. She could feel the light buzz that came with swallowing a small piece of his energy. In her mind, she saw his congregation, the soup kitchen, and the Faithful. Little was as he perceived it. He truly believed he was the Messiah, and these creatures—these djinn—were, for some reason, reinforcing that belief. To what end? What could he possibly contribute to their selfish cause?
He backed away, confused, before anymore images came to her. She glanced at the dark shadow, suddenly seeing a blinding light, instead. Is that what he saw? Did he think it was an angel guiding him?
He turned to it, staggering when he lost his balance for just a second. "What just happened? What did she do?"
"The demon inside her is attempting to use your strength against you, my Lord. It wants to kill you."
Drew shook her head, now able to hear every misguiding word.
"You have no choice. You must beat it out of her," the djinn continued.
"No—it's lying!"
"Punch her in the head. Punch her until there's nothing left for the demon to cling to. Do it now, my Lord!"
"No, please—"
She saw stars again when his fist hit her temple, disorienting her but not knocking her back out. The second blow made her hang her head, clinging to consciousness.
"Kill her. Exorcize the demon. Send it back to Hell."
She saw the next punch coming out of the corner of her eye, and she cringed back with a scream. "Okay—I give up! I'm done!"
He held his punch. "Tell me your name."
She fought to compose her thoughts, tears beginning to stream down her cheeks. Her breaths became shaky and weak. What were the names he'd listed before? Aziel? Crawler? Beelzebub?
"Your name!"
"Beelzebub, it's Beelzebub! But I'm leaving. I'm done."
"She's not being truthful, my Lord. The demon has no intentions of leaving. You have no choice but to kill the vessel."
"No!" she screamed. She looked up at the djinn. "Why are you doing this? Why do you want me dead? I'm nothing to you! I'm nobody!"
"You are the enemy," replied the djinn.
Hershel took a step back. "She can hear you?"
"She's guessing, my Lord."
"She's guessing, my Lord," Drew repeated, sobbing. "I can hear it. I can see it. But I see it for what it really is. You see light. I see—"
"Kill it now, before it infects your thoughts any further!"
"I see a shroud of darkness. It's left a smudge on your soul, and that smudge keeps getting bigger. If you kill me—"
"Be done with this! Kill her now, while you still can!"
"I thought only I could hear the voice of God…."
"That's not God," she cried.
Hershel's eyes locked on hers again, and they watched one another for a moment. He looked like he might be seeing reason, but then his expression hardened and his gaze shifted to a sideways glance.
"The great deceiver," he growled. "Satan himself."
She shook her head furiously.
"That's right," said the djinn. "You know what you have to do."
Hershel raised his hands into the air and closed his eyes, then he fell back into speaking his gibberish. Tears streamed down, the conflict in his face undeniable. Was he going to kill her because he really did believe she was possessed by the Devil, or was he going to kill her because he couldn't stand to consider the possibility that he'd been living a lie?
He shoved her, knocking the chair backward. Her head slammed into the hard floor as the chair fell. Her thoughts slipped in and out, and she knew if she let them slip away completely, she'd never wake up.
"Stomp in her head. Crush her windpipe. In the name of God, banish Satan from your presence!"
"No!"
She looked up, unable to focus. All she could see was a vague mass of movement. His soul was close, though, and she made another attempt at feeding off it. She could feel a new sense of resistance, as if he knew suddenly how to block her, and she held her breath and tensed her body in her desperation to draw him in.
His aura shifted, and she sensed he was raising a foot to bring it down on her. She screamed, and a burst of energy exploded outward from her body.
Hershel cried out as the sudden wave threw him from her side and he crashed into the wall behind him, where he slumped to the floor.
"Get up, my Lord. You must finish her!"
Hershel merely responded with a weak string of more gibberish.
The djinn loomed over Drew for a moment then materialized into a massive creature at her side. "I'd love to see you try that again," it said.
Drew screamed.
Chapter 31
Lenny heard the scream and took off running. It had come from the conference room around the corner. Lenny was pretty positive it was Drew. She was supposed to come to the church to try and extract information from Hershel, but Lenny had no idea she'd already arrived. When she saw the corner, she saw Kevin standing sentry at the door.
"Hey, Kevin, what's up?" Lenny asked, walking toward the man.
"Father has some business inside. Wait—shouldn't you know what's going on?"
"Oh, yeah—that's right." Lenny balled her fist and punched Kevin directly in the nose.
The man went down to his knees, and Lenny knocked him unconscious with a swift kick to the face.
She stepped over him to get to the door, and turned the knob.
Locked.
"Open up," she yelled in Joshua's voice, banging on the door.
&nb
sp; "Go away," a gravelly voice said from the other side.
"Fuck that," she said as she backed up and kicked the door.
She heard a slight crack and hoped that it was the door and not her hip. She kicked again, and this time the door pulled away from the frame. One more kick, and it flung open, revealing the scene inside.
Drew was flat on her back, tied to an overturned chair. Hershel sat in a heap on the floor across the room, mumbling something unintelligible and drifting in and out of consciousness. Lenny rushed to Drew's side and started to untie her arms.
"Are you o—" She was cut off as something unseen knocked her off her feet.
She stumbled back and hit the floor with a thud.
"Lenny," Drew mumbled. "It's a djinn."
"I can't see it."
"I can," Drew said. "In the corner."
An invisible hand connected with her cheek, and she flew to the other side of the room. As she rose from the ground, ignoring the pain that radiated through her jaw, she shifted into the form of her new friend, the succubus. In an instant, the shadowy smudge in the room became fully visible to her. She smelled a musty scent like an old cellar full of potatoes and dirt.
"I see you now." She smiled at the shadow and cocked her head. "That's a neat trick, hiding yourself like that. Did your mommy teach you that?"
"You have no idea who you’re dealing with, bitch. Your shifter parlor tricks are nothing compared to my power."
The shadowy figure materialized into what she figured was its true form. It wasn't quite the monstrosity that Demas was, but it was close. It was a massive, red thing that had glowing black eyes and a thick lantern jaw. Its muscular frame bulged all over, and it had two sets of arms on its sides. When the thing opened its mouth, it had what looked like a single row of icepick-sharp teeth.
"Ooh, I'm shaking in my boots. You are so big and scary, picking on girls when you're invisible. That takes a whole lot of balls."
"I'll rip off your head and shit down your neck!" The monster advanced on her, anger blazing in its eyes.
Lenny shifted into the form of the demon from the break room and stopped the djinn in its tracks with a well-placed right hook. The djinn looked at her with more wounded pride than wounded jaw.
"What the hell? You shouldn't be able to do that. How are you doing that?"
"What, kicking your ass?" Lenny smiled again. "I guess I got mad skills."
"Shifters can't…." He trailed off, still confused. "This isn't over, bitch. I'll be back and I'll get you."
"And my little dog, too?"
The djinn disappeared in a cloud of red mist. Lenny knelt down again and used her claw to slice through the twine holding Drew in place.
"Thanks," Drew said, rubbing her wrists. "That was weird."
"Yeah, but it was the only thing I could think of in the moment."
"It was perfect. Are you going to shift back?"
"I figured we would wake up sleeping beauty over there first. This look might be more effective."
"Good call." Drew walked over to where Hershel sat and used the twine to bind his hands.
Lenny righted the overturned chair and lifted Hershel's limp body onto the seat.
Drew stood above him and slapped him across the face. He mumbled and came partially awake. Drew slapped him again, harder. His eyes flew open and the first thing he saw was Drew standing over him with a huge red demon standing behind her.
"Is this Beelzebub?" he said groggily. "Is this the demon that held you prisoner, Drew?"
"No. This is my friend, and we have a few questions for you."
Lenny stepped forward and leaned in close to Hershel, breathing heavily for emphasis.
"Tell us what is happening here, Hershel."
"Don't you speak my name, demon."
"Hershel, Hershel, Hershel. Tell us what your plan is for all of those souls trapped in the stones."
"I don't know what you're talking about, Hell beast."
He tried to look defiant, but Lenny could tell he was terrified. It would only take a little persuading to get him to talk. She traced a claw down his chest, poking it into his gut but not breaking the skin. Hershel cried out.
"I don't know anything about souls trapped in stones, I swear it. All of the souls I freed were sent to Heaven."
"No, you are a murderer that preys on the weak. You delivered those souls to a monster, not God."
"I do the work of God," Hershel said, tears streaming from his eyes. "I save souls."
"Does that include Marissa's soul?" Lenny shifted into the form of the young girl. "Were you saving her soul when you took her into your bed? She's just a child."
"I showed her love. I was gentle with her."
"You are a sick freak." Lenny spat at him, shifting into her own form.
"Lenny? Lenny, is that really you?" Hershel sobbed and hung his head. "Praise God you're alive, sweet Lenore."
She decided to try another tactic.
"Yes, Father, it's me." She leaned in and took his hands in hers. "I need you to talk to me. I need to hear about the souls. Who is taking them?"
"I swear I don't know anything about souls except the ones I sent home to be with God. The angel told me that God needed me to send Him souls in order to defeat Hell. All the other things were just to get money to build up the church."
"What other things?" Lenny asked sweetly.
"The guns and the drugs," he whined. "It wasn't my idea."
"Lenny, someone is coming down the hall." Drew sniffed the air. "It's another djinn."
"What else are you involved in?" Lenny asked Hershel, leaning in close.
"The cleansing will happen soon."
Before Lenny could ask anything else, Celia appeared in the broken doorway.
"What the fuck is going on here?" Celia asked, surveying the scene.
"Praise God! Celia, help me," Hershel begged incoherently. "They are demons trying to get my soul. Lenny is fine and she's coming back to me. But the stones, why are the souls still here … I thought they were going straight to Heaven. They asked about the cleansing, but I didn't say anything about Dr. Sandb—"
Celia reached behind her and pulled a small knife from her waistband. Before Lenny or Drew could stop her, she flung the knife through the air. It embedded in the center of Hershel's forehead, cutting him off mid-sentence and killing him instantly.
"Holy shit," Drew exclaimed.
"Aye Dios mio, I'm so glad to be rid of that crazy fuck. I told the boss he was unstable."
"The boss?" Lenny asked.
"Nice try, puta demonia. I'm not some whack job preacher you can scare into spilling the beans. I'm also not stupid. I'm not going to take on a shifter and a succubus by myself." She backed out of the room, slowly. "Good luck getting out of here, though. You'll need it."
She ran down the hall, yelling at the top of her lungs.
"Father is dead! They killed him! Oh, God, they killed Father!"
"Shit," Drew said, looking worried. "How are we going to get out of here?"
"Until we get some help from Hell, I guess we fight."
The two women started out of the room, hoping they would be able to get out of the church alive.
Chapter 32
Most of The Children of Light members were still out doing their community outreach, oblivious to the celestial battle going on in the church. They were handing out flyers, trying to gather more converts from the junkies, prostitutes, homeless, and runaways in the city.
All the while smiling and spreading the gospel of their now-dead savior.
Drew and Lenny walked out of the office, staying close against the wall. Lenny inched forward toward the corner, peeking around to see if they had a clear path to the door.
She looked back at Drew and shook her head. Celia was standing in the middle of the lobby, surrounded by several church members. She was sobbing as she told her story about how the demons had come in, taken over Lenny and the prostitute, and killed Father. They were consoling her
and looking around to see if they could spot the monsters that had murdered their messiah.
"What do we do?" Drew mouthed the words, not wanting to make a sound and attract attention.
Lenny shrugged, not sure what to say, but then she raised a finger in the air, signifying she had an idea. She shifted into the form of Joseph, Hershel's right-hand man, and the only human member of the Faithful. Drew looked puzzled, but Lenny mimed the plan out for her.
Uneasy, but with no other ideas, Drew nodded her consent. Lenny took hold of her upper arm and dragged her out into the open as she struggled.
"I got the hooker right here," she said in Joseph's voice. "The demon has left her, and she has no idea what happened. I'm going to take her out of this holy place and get her to the police."
The two headed for the front door, the church members parting to let them pass.
"Wait," Celia called out from behind them. "Where is Lenny?"
"I have no idea," Lenny said nervously. "Why don't you go and look for her?"
Celia eyed them suspiciously. It was obvious she didn't want them to leave, and Lenny assumed that she knew it was her and was trying to figure out a way to stop them. Lenny continued toward the door, pushing Drew ahead of her. Drew added in a few vocal protests to make the situation more believable.
"Let me go!"
"I'm taking you to the police. Shut your mouth."
As they approached the front door, within a few feet of freedom, the real Joseph walked into the lobby. He gave a look of fear and surprise when he saw himself standing there.
"Well, that wasn't supposed to happen," Lenny said as she let go of Drew's arm and shifted back into her own form.
Celia raised her arm and pointed at the pair as she screamed, "Demons! Those are the demons! Get them!"
Cast In Blood: Revelations Series Book 1: Page 17
