JEGUDIEL: A Deadly Virtues Novel

by Cole, Tillie

  He didn’t know why God had chosen him to walk deeper and deeper into the Brethren’s sinful world, but he would follow wherever He led him, sacrificing his own soul for his brothers and any other victim they met along the way. Gabriel looked at Dinah and, for a moment, he saw himself reflected in her dark eyes.

  She was sacrificing everything for her sisters too.

  “We have a home,” he said, hearing Diel’s breathing get faster and faster with every word Gabriel spoke. He was close to losing it. They had to get him back to the manor. To a place he knew to be safe. “It’s secure, and far out of reach of the Brethren.”

  Everything inside Gabriel fought against bringing strangers into the manor. His entire life beyond Purgatory had been to protect his family, and he did it with supreme success. It went against everything he had built to let strangers into his home. But this, the Brethren … it was bigger than him and his brothers, bigger than the security he had built for them all.

  And when he’d turned the Fallen onto this path—the path to battle the Brethren head on—he’d known sacrifices would have to be made and risks taken, as they would in any war. He yearned for a world of peace, but knowing there were others out there like him and his brothers, survivors of the Brethren too … he would never live with himself if he didn’t help. After all, though he was not officially ordained, it was in the very nature of the priesthood to be self-sacrificing, and that was the life he had vowed to God to lead. “We have protection that you will probably not have.”

  “How?” Noa asked, suspicion written all over her face. As Gabriel studied the woman that had handled Diel so well and captured his brother’s peculiar fascination, he saw something in her demeanor that he didn’t see in her sisters. Because he had only ever witnessed it in his brothers. Noa fostered some level of darkness in her soul. Everything about her screamed that she had walked through shadowed and dangerous valleys—maybe still hadn’t reached the end.

  “It’s a long story,” Gabriel said, vowing to keep an eye on the stoic woman.

  Noa turned to Dinah, and Gabriel didn’t hear what was said between them. But when they turned back to Gabriel, Dinah nodded her head. “Lead the way.” She checked them all over with a tight gaze. “But fuck us over, and you’ll be sorry.”

  “Same to you, head witch.” Bara turned his green eyes on each of the Coven. A stark warning not to take him and his brothers on was written all over his face.

  Sela approached Diel and put his hand on his arm to take him to the van. Diel stepped forward and joined his brothers, but the heavy look shared between him and Noa didn’t go unnoticed by Gabriel.

  “Follow behind,” Gabriel said to Dinah. “And please keep your lights off. We live a life off the grid. We have learned to exist in the darkness.”

  Dinah and the Coven got back into their van. Gabriel jumped into the driver’s seat of the Fallen’s vehicle, and his brothers got in the back.

  “Neo-pagan witches and fallen archangels,” Uriel said, bitterness dripping from his mouth. “What fucking wild imaginations the Brethren bastards have.”

  As Gabriel pulled onto the back road home, the hairs on his arms stood on end. Because he knew, after meeting the Coven, that they were just the tip of the iceberg. How many other survivors were out there, living to bring down their abusers?

  Gabriel couldn’t even hazard a guess.

  * * *

  Gabriel opened the doors of the manor, and his brothers walked ahead. He turned and saw the shock and suspicion on the Coven’s faces. Dinah took the lead, Noa just a step behind. The others followed them up the sprawling steps and into the impressive foyer.

  “Who the fuck are you guys?” Dinah said, awe in her voice, as Gabriel motioned for them to follow him into the Nave. In the chandelier’s bright light, Gabriel could better see the Coven’s faces. They looked close in age to him and his brothers, maybe a couple of years younger. Michael had disappeared to his bedroom. When he returned, he was holding a glass of blood, his lips stained red from the sips he’d already taken.

  Gabriel waited until all his brothers were present to begin. Diel hovered near Sela, but he was watching Noa again. He hadn’t said a word all the way home. It was always the same after his kills and during his comedowns. Only this time Gabriel was sure the silence wasn’t because of the kills, but because of the meeting of a certain woman with a long pink braid.

  “Allow me to introduce ourselves.” Gabriel removed his coat. The Coven saw his white dog collar and clerical clothing, and froze.

  “You’re a fucking priest?” the statuesque blonde spat.

  Gabriel had expected that reaction. “In spirituality only. Not ordained.” He smiled, but it was void of humor. “As you know, my life ended up going down a different path than I’d planned.”

  Gabriel moved to Uriel. “This is Uriel.” Uriel crossed his muscled arms over his chest. With his jacket now removed, his tattoos and piercings were boldly on show. “Next is Bara.”

  Bara bowed dramatically. “Pleasure to meet all you fine ladies,” he said, sarcasm thick in his words. When he rose from his bow, he flashed his white-toothed dark grin in the redhead’s direction. “Especially you, little fire witch.”

  “This is Sela,” Gabriel said. “But you’ve already made his acquaintance.” Sela raised his eyebrow at the Coven, but Gabriel could see the news of Auguste was still occupying his mind.

  “You’ve met Diel,” Gabriel said. Diel’s head twitched and the collar began to hum. Diel closed his eyes, and the collar eventually grew silent.

  “Next is Michael.” Gabriel looked at his brother, but his attention was on the floor. Gabriel wasn’t sure Michael had even realized the Coven were in the manor. Michael sipped at his blood—it was always about the blood.

  “Is he drinking blood?” the Indian woman asked, shock clear in her voice. Gabriel cast a glance at Maria. The Coven may have been Brethren survivors too, but the Fallen were not merely survivors—they were more. They had always been more. The Indian woman seemed to gravitate toward the petite brunette, perhaps to shield her somehow. The brunette stared at Michael, a flush to her cheeks.

  “Yes,” Gabriel said. “Michael is my brother. My real brother. Born from the same parents.”

  Michael licked his pointed teeth, and Gabriel heard gasps. The small brunette watched as Michael bared his fangs. At the sound of her gasp, Michael lifted his ice-blue eyes, and they met the brunette’s. His head tipped to the side as he studied her. He dipped his finger into the blood and sucked it off his finger before looking back down at the floor, disengaged once again.

  The redhead subtly checked the brunette’s forehead. Gabriel wondered if she was sick. Maria stepped beside Gabriel and said, “I am Maria, and this is my other half, Raphael.” Raphael was holding Maria’s hair in his hands, combing through the strands.

  “What are you all?” Noa stepped forward, full of courage as she crossed her arms over her chest. She faced Diel. “Diel kills. We watched him do it. He wears a collar and fights darkness within him.” She looked at Michael. “He drinks blood, has fangs and looks like he belongs in a goddamn horror movie.”

  “Shit, say it how it really is, pink witch,” Bara said.

  Noa narrowed her eyes, then looked to Gabriel. “You’re killers.” Gabriel tensed, but then exhaled and nodded his head. Noa turned to Dinah. “Just like Priscilla.”

  “Priscilla?” Gabriel questioned.

  “Our seventh sister.” Dinah raised her chin. “She’s on her own path, but she’s still one of us.”

  Dinah pointed at the Indian woman and the tall blonde, who were holding hands. “Candace and Jo. They’re together.” She moved to the redhead. “Naomi.” Dinah’s eyes hardened. “She doesn’t speak to men, so don’t dare try and make her.”

  “Ouch,” Bara said, hand over his chest. “You wound me. It’s fucking enlightening talking to me.”

  “Nothing personal, we just don’t have a real high opinion of men in this coven,” Dinah sai
d.

  Uriel smiled. “And you think we do?”

  Gabriel felt the years of abuse wash over him. Being pinned down, being touched against their will, fucked, only for the priests to start again. It was all done by men.

  Dinah raised her middle finger. “Fuck the Brethren patriarchy.”

  “Amen to that.” Bara smirked. “We’re all about feminism in this family.” His attention swung back to Naomi. Gabriel saw the flash of challenge in Bara’s eyes, and he vowed to speak to Bara about keeping away from the timid mute.

  Dinah pointed to the small brunette. “This is Beth.” Gabriel heard a clink. Michael’s long black fingernail was circling the rim of his glass. His body had shifted slightly in Beth’s direction, but his eyes remained on the glass of blood in his hand. Gabriel frowned, surprised to get any reaction from his brother at all.

  “Lastly is Noa,” Dinah said. “But you’ll all know her by now.”

  “And you’re the fearsome leader,” Raphael said, his hands still in Maria’s hair.

  “Of sorts,” Dinah said. “And that’s the whole gang.” Dinah looked at Noa and nodded. Noa took a book from the bag she wore around her back. “How much do you know of the Brethren?”

  “Right now?” Gabriel said. Dinah nodded. “Not much. We’ve only recently actively turned our fight against them.”

  Dinah moved to the dining table and laid out the book. Maria and Gabriel looked at it. It took Gabriel a moment to understand what he was reading. His eyes widened when it became clear. “A ledger,” he whispered and caught Maria’s quick inhale. There were lists and lists of priests’ names, addresses, and the local parishes and churches they controlled.

  “Where did you get this?” Gabriel’s excitement waned as he read name after name. “There are so many of them.” He closed his eyes and lifted his face to the ceiling. “There are so many of them in such a small vicinity …”

  “Shocked?” Dinah asked.

  Gabriel sighed in defeat. “No.” He shook his head, then opened his eyes. “I wish I was, but I’m not. Have you discovered how many children they have? Ones like us?”

  “Not yet,” Dinah said, and something in her strong demeanor seemed to soften, the armor she wore cracked, allowing Gabriel read her a little closer. She seemed hurt. She seemed defeated. But then she straightened her shoulders once more and said, “But we will. One day. I won’t rest until I do.”

  “How do we take them all on?” Maria asked, her trepidation at the mammoth task before them evident in her tone. Gabriel’s brothers gathered around the table, listening.

  “I can take out up to a hundred on my own in one go.” Bara sat on the edge of the table, arm resting on his bent knee. He smiled his usual disturbing smile. “And I wouldn’t even break a sweat.”

  “You kill en masse,” Noa said knowingly. For the second time tonight, Gabriel studied Noa. There was a reason she understood the violent nature of his brothers without being told. He didn’t know why, but God had given him a way of seeking out people like them. He could just feel something dark within her too.

  “The more the merrier, I say.” Bara reached over to the fruit bowl and took an apple. “Don’t worry though,” he said through a mouth of apple flesh. “Maria and Angel here are our token innocents. They keep the rest of our wicked souls on a leash.”

  “Angel?” Dinah queried.

  “He means me.” Gabriel ran his hand down his face. “I lean toward a pacifist’s life.”

  “Then you’re in the wrong fucking line of work,” Candace said.

  “I’m aware.” The still-raw stripes on his back burned in agreement.

  “Where did you get this?” Maria asked, refocusing on the task in hand.

  Dinah was trying to figure Maria out; he could see it in her confused expression. Maria must have seen too. “It’s a long story, but I was a nun who was used by the Brethren to try to capture Raphael. It failed, and I moved in here to be with Raphael when we fell in love. And to be with my new family.” Raphael wrapped his arm around Maria’s chest and pulled her against him.

  “Where are you living?” Gabriel said, his mind ticking over at a million miles an hour. The Coven had knowledge of the Brethren, more than he and Maria had managed to discover. And the ledger … all of them were gravely at risk now they had such a thing in their possession.

  “An abandoned tunnel system from the War of Independence,” Jo said. “Not ideal, but it has kept us safe so far.”

  Gabriel frowned. “We own land. Acres upon acres. Government-protected. Off the grid. The Brethren will never find us here. To anyone outside of this place, we don’t exist.”

  “Are you going to tell us why?” Dinah asked.

  “Take a seat.”

  Gabriel told the Coven of his grandfather and how he had left Gabriel an ever-filling well of money from his businesses. When he had told them of the Fallen’s most recent battle with the Brethren, he took a sip of the tea that Lynn, the housekeeper, had brought out, and the large room plunged into silence.

  “Shit,” Dinah said, sitting back on her chair. “They’re going to be pissed. And they’ll be searching every inch of this globe for you all.”

  Gabriel closed his eyes. The Brethren they had taken out at Purgatory recently were merely a scratch on the surface of their numbers. His heart fell when he thought of just how many other priests existed in the world, exorcising people they felt were heretics. And Dinah was right. They would be after the Fallen now. His brothers were more at risk than ever before.

  When Gabriel opened his eyes, he saw the women before him. Women who knew how to live discreetly, and women who wanted what he and his family wanted too—the Brethren to be destroyed.

  “We have housing here, on our land. Separate dwellings to the manor,” he said. Dinah met his eyes. “We have more to learn from you, and you have things to learn from us.”

  “We need to help the children …” Dinah told Gabriel and the brothers of all the children they had recovered and hidden away. With every story of another example of Brethren abuse, his already ruined heart shed its final layer of protection until it was an exposed and unprotected mound of raw flesh.

  “We have money,” Gabriel said, devastation running through his veins. “We have money and connections, and we can host the boys here on the land in one of the other buildings. Katie, their guardian, too. We can help them. Give them the help they need, help none of us ever got. An education. Food and shelter.”

  Gabriel had always been tormented by the fact he had cast himself into a life of sin and murder. But this … this was a chance to help children who had been hurt like they had all been hurt, to help recover Brethren victims while they still had a chance at life. He felt something pull in his chest and knew that this was God giving him this duty. One laced with hope of salvation. A chance to help and offer kindness to those who had never experienced it. To save them before it was too late.

  Dinah looked at her sisters, and Gabriel saw her dark eyes were bright. “You’ll help the kids? Really?” Her voice was rough and rasped, as though she daren’t let herself believe someone would actually help them after all this time alone.

  “You have my vow,” Gabriel said, hand over his heart. He looked at his brothers, then the Coven. They were all cut from the same sullied cloth, bloodstained and ragged, but still surviving, still serving some kind of purpose despite their frayed and torn edges.

  Gabriel felt a change spark inside him, something akin to hope. They had all been alone for so long. The Fallen had banded together, an unbreakable unit of brotherhood, survivors of a life no one outside of them could ever believe. Their enemy was both hidden from the world yet thriving in plain sight. And these women … they were the same. After all these years, the Fallen had found people just like them. Different circumstances, different experiences, but they had survived same brutal and savage storm the Fallen had walked through.

  “We can send people to retrieve your things,” Gabriel said. “Trustworthy, discre
et people. You can have the old housekeeper’s home. It’s large and empty, and it’s yours.”

  “And them.” Dinah nodded toward Gabriel’s brothers. “Can all of them be trusted?”

  Gabriel nodded back, conviction in his voice. “We have family commandments that they do not, and will not, break. If you are living on this estate with us, you won’t be harmed. We do not harm people we consider allies.”

  Dinah silently communicated something with her sisters, then sat forward and held out her hand to Gabriel. “We’ll do a trial period. To see how we work together.”

  Gabriel bowed his head in agreement.

  “Then you have a deal, Goldilocks.”

  Gabriel shook Dinah’s hand, and as he pulled back, he looked at his brothers and the Coven all gathered around the Nave, and then finally at the still-open ledger on the table. So many names. So many priests, and too many potential children that needed to be saved.

  Warmth spread over Gabriel, and something clicked into place inside him. Looking at Maria, then Dinah, he clasped his hands on the table. “Now, where to begin?”

  Chapter 8

  Auguste surveyed the room. He pressed his hand to the clean sheets that Father McConnell slept in. They were cold. Not a single thing was out of place in the room. There was no blood, no signs of a struggle, yet he knew something was off, just like he’d known something was off with the others. Father McConnell, along with four other priests in close proximity, had mysteriously gone missing. Not a word from any of them. Gone, vanished into thin air.

  Father Auguste turned when Father Abel walked into the bedroom. “The charge has gone from here too.”

  A twitch pulled at Father Auguste’s cheek. The young sinners the priests had been exorcising at home had been taken. He tipped his head back, the end of his long ponytail reaching the center of his back. Anger swelled in his blood, and one face sprang to mind. Disgust and shame filtered into his bones as he thought of his brother. As he thought of Selaphiel’s sinful face.

  He opened his eyes and cast one last look around the bedroom. He was about to leave and go back to the Brethren headquarters when he noticed an old picture on the wall was ever so slightly askew.