by Diem, J. C.
“We’re going to need a new captain,” Reynolds realized and grimaced. “I wonder which demon will be chosen for the title this time?”
Whoever it was, I’d do my best to steer clear of him. Bob had been an idiot and he’d still managed to cause me untold pain. Dealing with someone who would no doubt be far craftier than him was something I’d rather avoid.
₪₪₪
Chapter Thirty
I felt safe in the small, unpretentious church. The cops hadn’t been back to bother the minister and demons couldn’t set foot on the grounds. It was a haven that could shelter us for a little while as we discussed our options.
We all froze when Reynolds’ cell phone rang. He motioned for us to be quiet then answered it. “Hey, Gomez. What’s up?” He listened in silence and looked at me grimly when she was finished. “Understood. I’ll be right there.” He hung up and put his phone away.
“What’s going on?” I asked, knowing it had something to do with me.
“Captain Lancaster was attacked in the basement of our headquarters,” he said dryly. “CCTV footage puts you in the building and guess who they’re blaming for his condition?”
“Is he dead?” I asked in alarm. I couldn’t kill demons while I was in this dimension. I could only expel them from their vessels.
He shook his head. “He’s alive, but he suffered extensive brain damage and he won’t be able to continue in his position.”
“If they have me on tape, then doesn’t that mean you and Sam are on there as well, helping me to escape?”
“There aren’t any working cameras in the basement, which means there is no tape. They’re trying to frame you again.”
“Has your new captain been announced yet?” Nathan asked. He sounded as tired as he looked.
“Not yet. We’ve been called back to HQ, so I’d better go.” He looked at Leo. “Can you teleport me back to my car?”
“Of course,” Leo said and stood.
Reynolds turned to Elijah to see his stunned expression. “That’s exactly how I looked when I learned angels could teleport,” he said with a wry grin. He held his hand out to the older man to shake. “Thanks for all your help, Reverend.”
“You’re welcome, my son.” Hesitating, Elijah ventured a question. “Why didn’t you come to me when you first learned about the war between angels and demons?”
“You said it yourself,” the detective replied. “You’d have thought I was crazy.” With that, he turned to Leo and the pair disappeared.
Finishing my tea, I handed the cup to Sophia when she held her hand out to take it. “Would you like a refill?” she asked.
I was starting to crash now that Nathan’s essence had worn off. I wanted to curl up on the pew like Sam and sleep. Drinking tea would keep me awake for a while. “That’d be great,” I replied.
She and the priest headed for the kitchen, leaving me alone with Nathan and a slumbering former imp. Our eyes met and I saw Nathan’s sadness. “How badly did Bob hurt you?” he asked me softly.
“It was pretty bad,” I admitted and tears welled up. I didn’t have the strength to hold them off any longer. He was instantly at my side and gently shifted Sam and me down further so he’d have room to sit beside me. Even in his weakened state, he was strong enough to move us both with one hand. He slid onto the pew beside me and put his arm around me. I put my head on his shoulder and told him what Bob had done. The only part I left out was when he’d sliced open the black scar and had let the Wraith Warrior out.
Nathan was silent after I told him about my torture session. I could feel his grief and anger as if it was my own. “I felt your pain,” he said at last and put a hand on his chest over his heart. “I knew you were suffering and I could do nothing to save you.” His tone was desolate and I sensed that he blamed himself.
“The building is warded to keep you out,” I reminded him. “Sam and Reynolds saved me before Bob could do any irreparable damage.”
“I wish I could believe that,” he said in a low voice. He could sense my anguish and he knew that I’d be having nightmares about this day for a long time to come.
Sophia and the priest entered. I could tell by the pity on his face that she’d relayed our conversation to him. He took in the angel comforting me and the imp resting on my lap and seemed to reach a decision. “I would like to offer you my assistance,” he said to Sophia as she handed me the fresh cup of tea. My hand shook when I took it from her.
“You have already assisted us,” she said and took her seat again.
“I think I might be able to keep the demons out of your base.”
Nathan looked at him in hope. “How would you accomplish that?”
“I’ll bless it,” Elijah replied. “I’ve seen for myself that consecrated ground keeps evil beings out. Sophia told me about the spell that allowed the demons to unlock the doors of your decoy buildings. Even if they find your base and use the spell to open the door, they won’t be able to step inside.”
“What’s involved in consecrating a building?” I asked.
His reply was simple. “Faith, mostly.”
Leo returned just in time to overhear him. “What did I miss?” he asked.
Sophia’s wide smile made him blink. “Elijah has kindly offered to fortify our base.”
Leo’s brow crinkled for a moment before it smoothed out. “Are you going to bless it?” he asked.
Nodding, the minister was clearly deep in thought. “I will gather a few items and then I will be ready.” He stood, taking his cup with him then turned to Leo. “Will you be teleporting us to Sophia’s store?” She’d clearly filled him in on a few details while I’d been speaking to Nathan. Leo nodded and the priest gulped. I wasn’t sure if I saw fear or awe on his face when he hurried away.
Faith might be the main ingredient, but the priest brought back a paper bag with a few items inside. He waited for us to finish our tea then took the cups into the kitchen. He locked the doors then returned and waited nervously for us to gather around. Sam was still out of it, so Leo picked him up. He was shorter than Sam by a few inches, but he was far stronger than he looked. We crowded around until we were all touching then he whisked us to the store.
Leaving us in the front room, Leo teleported upstairs and put Sam to bed. Sophia never needed to sleep, so he’d taken over her room. Leo returned to us and we sat down at the table to watch as the priest took items out of the paper bag.
Picking up a plain wooden cross, Elijah strode over to a shelf and leaned the cross against a wall. Next, he took what looked like herbs and crushed them into a bowl. He used a match to set them on fire and walked the perimeter of the lower floor as he chanted too quietly for me to make out what he was saying. “I have cleansed this building of evil,” he said when he returned from the kitchen.
“There was evil here?” I asked in alarm. Sophia had asked Brie to cast a spell to get rid of the Hellmaster’s influence several months ago, not that she’d told her that was the reason why. Maybe it hadn’t worked as well as we’d thought.
“I saw a faint black aura, but it is gone now,” he said reassuringly. “Now I will bless the building and ask God to protect it from evil beings.”
Again, he chanted too quietly for me to hear him. Sophia, Nathan and Leo didn’t have any problems making out what he said. They kept a respectful silence as the preacher made a circuit of the lower floor again. He looked drained when he was done and sat down at the table. “I have done what I can,” he said then looked at me. “Is there somewhere we can speak in private?”
A chill tried to work its way down my spine, but I held in my shiver. “You can speak in the living room,” Sophia offered.
I felt weary, but stood and led the priest upstairs.
₪₪₪
Chapter Thirty-One
Closing the door behind him, I pulled my dagger and pricked my finger. Smearing blood over the rune to complete it, I pressed my hand against it to activate it.
Turning to Elijah,
I saw his expression of revulsion when he looked at the rune. It didn’t surprise me that he could see it. Most humans were blind to magic, but he was different. “What did you want to say to me?” I asked as I wiped my finger on a tissue. I did the same with the blade, then put it back in the sheath.
“I can see dark auras around demons,” he replied. I had to suppress the urge to make a snarky comment that I already knew that. “I can also see a white aura around Nathanael and Leo. That is why I believed Nathanael when he said he was a soldier of God.”
“Why didn’t you say anything about this earlier?”
He hesitated and seemed uncertain about how to proceed. “You have an aura, too,” he said at last.
Swallowing down trepidation, I forced out a question. “What color is it?”
“Gray,” he replied and I sagged in relief that it wasn’t black. “It almost seems as if your soul is torn between being good and evil.”
“I don’t have a soul. It was taken from me when I was a baby.”
Astonished, he plonked down on the armchair. “How are you still alive? No human should be able to survive without their soul.”
“Nathan was given the task of watching over me,” I reminded him. Nathan had told him that the first time we’d met. “He’s saved me from death a lot.”
“Why was your soul taken and who is responsible for it?”
Now it was my turn to hesitate. He had to know about the unnatural offspring that were created when angels or demons used their vessels to mate with humans. He would also know that they were abhorred by God. I needed him on our side and I couldn’t tell him the truth about why my mother had removed my soul. “Fate warned my mother that I would be different from everyone else,” I told him. “She said she had to find a way to hide me from demons. My soul apparently acts like a beacon to them.”
“Who is your mother?”
“Asteraoth. She was an angel who was trapped inside her body after her grace was harvested by demons. They murdered her and I ran before they could capture me. I ended up here in New York. Sophia had a vision about me and sent Leo and another angel called Brie to find me.”
“Sophia is similar to your mother?” he asked. I nodded and he turned thoughtful. “She doesn’t have an aura that I can see, but I knew she wasn’t a normal human.”
“No one who is associated with me can be classed as normal,” I told him wryly.
His response was shrewd. “Perhaps you will need the aid of extraordinary beings in order to fulfill your mission.”
“I guess so.” I couldn’t help but feel bad for my friends and allies. They’d been dragged into this and had become caught up in my fight. Then again, a war had been raging between heaven and hell since long before my birth. I was the one who had been dragged into their battle.
Studying me intently, the priest had one more thing to say. “You’re young, but I believe you’re stronger than you think you are. You’ve been through a lot already, yet worse is yet to come. Try to keep your faith during the dark times that are coming. Remember that your friends love you. Don’t give in to despair, no matter how grim things become.”
I heaved a watery sigh and barely managed to hold onto my tears. “I’ll try, Reverend.” That was all I could promise him. Bob’s torture session hadn’t left any physical scars, but I’d never forget how it had felt to have my own blade turned against me and how helpless I’d been to stop him. Not even my wrath had helped me this time. It had remained stubbornly absent. I’d had to resort to using the deepest darkness inside me to save myself and I couldn’t tell anyone about it. The Wraith Warrior was going to have to be my secret and it was already festering inside me.
Breaking the silence rune, I opened the door and went to check on Sam as the priest headed downstairs. Sam was breathing deeply and sleeping peacefully. I bent to brush a kiss on his forehead and turned to see Nathan standing in the doorway. He crossed to my side and stood close enough for our arms to touch as he stared down at my best friend. “I had grave doubts about Samuel when he first joined our team,” he confessed quietly. “I could not see how an imp could possibly be anything less than a liability. You saw something in him that no one else did and you were willing to give him a chance.”
“He was just so beaten down and pitiful,” I said sadly. “He was hideous and twisted and he looked far too much like a demon, but I just knew that he wasn’t evil.” I saw a picture of him in my mind when he’d been cowering in the shadows wearing a filthy loincloth. “He helped me even though he knew he’d be punished for it. There was no way I could have left him in that portal.”
“I love you, too, Violet,” Sam mumbled and opened his eyes. “Now go away and let me sleep.”
Nathan’s grin stole my breath away and I was snared by his sheer beauty once more. He took my hand and led me from the room to let Sam sleep in peace.
Sophia was making sandwiches when we stepped into the kitchen. “Sam’s still sleeping,” I told her when I saw how many she’d made.
“Elijah will be joining us for lunch,” she informed me.
Feeling exhausted, I followed her into the front room and sat down to eat. Elijah’s appetite was far stronger than mine. He polished off his sandwiches before I’d even finished my first one. I forced myself to eat because I had to keep my strength up.
Sitting back with a satisfied sigh, the priest dug his cell phone out of a pocket. “We’d better exchange numbers so we can keep in touch,” he said. Sophia rattled our numbers off so he could store them in his phone. I took my phone out and recorded the number that he recited while Sophia wrote it down on a notepad.
I now had four numbers stored on the phone. I had to be the only teenager in the city with such a pathetically small list, but at least it was an interesting one. It consisted of my boyfriend, a former angel, a detective and a priest. None of my other friends or allies owned cell phones. We kept in touch by setting up secret meetings or by me summoning them to my side.
“What will you do now that you are aware of the demon threat that is hovering over this city?” Sophia said to our newest recruit.
Elijah’s contented expression became grave. “I will assist you however I can, of course. Apart from that, I’m not sure what I can do. I don’t have the power to stop the gates of hell from opening.”
Only one person could pull that off and they all turned to me. “That’s my job,” I said with a heavy sigh. “Maybe you can concentrate on doing something to help the humans, just in case I fail.”
“You will not fail,” the reverend said with quiet confidence that I didn’t warrant since he’d only just met me. “God will not allow evil to triumph over good.”
Nathan shook his head to stop me from blurting out that God had abandoned us. The minister still had his faith, which was how he’d managed to bless the store. If he lost his trust in God, then his blessing could very well die along with it.
₪₪₪
Chapter Thirty-Two
Knowing I’d have to return to hell soon, I wanted to see Zach before I found the next portal. I texted him before I went to bed and asked if he could sneak away to meet me. He replied instantly that he thought there might be a way for us to meet. Candy and her mother would be away for a couple of days and his father was busy with work. He suggested that we could meet in a museum. He seemed confident that he could shake Giles and meet with me privately. I responded that I’d meet him there at two the next afternoon. After the horrors that Bob had put me through, I needed to experience some happiness again.
My sleep was restless and full of the nightmares that I’d been expecting. I woke up feeling groggy and dragged myself into the shower.
Reynolds called while I was eating breakfast. He spoke even before I could offer him a greeting. “Our new captain has arrived,” he told me.
“Who is he this time?”
“It isn’t a he,” he corrected me. “It’s a she and I’ve never seen her before.”
“Do you think she’s a demon?
”
“I assume so. She gave a very intense speech about how finding you is now our top priority. She apparently won’t stand for anyone harming one of our own.” His tone had turned dry by the end of his statement.
“What does she look like?” I had a sneaking suspicion of who it would be and needed him to confirm it.
“She’s average height, on the slim side, kind of pale, has short black hair and light blue eyes. She’s using the name ‘Vespa March’.”
My stomach clenched when I realized who she was. “Her real name is Vepar,” I said. “She’s a Demon Lord and she’s very dangerous. She’s behind most of the deaths in the city.”
“She’s the one with the kill squad sending demon souls to you?” he asked.
“Yeah. Be careful and don’t let her know you’re aware of what she is.”
Blowing out a sigh, he sounded even wearier than I felt when he replied. “You’re the one who should be wary. She’s hell bent on finding you and bringing you in.”
We’d made a deal that she’d stop evicting her kin and sending them out to try to track me down, but she didn’t need to use that tactic anymore. By turning Bob into a walking vegetable, I’d inadvertently given her an opportunity and she’d instantly leaped at it. She now had an entire police force behind her to hunt me down.
“I am surprised Vepar waited this long before taking control of the police,” Nathan said. He looked better after resting all night, but he still looked tired from giving me too much of his essence. Sam was shoveling cereal into his mouth. He’d woken up cranky and hadn’t spoken at all yet. I was pretty sure he was worried that I was going to leave him behind when I next went to the underworld.
