by Misty Evans
Damon yelled at me as he exited a second later. “It is unwise to rush in before we know the extent of…”
I cut him off in midsentence. “Shut up and get out here.”
Dark clouds boiled overhead. The one streetlamp had come on, the heavy cloud cover mimicking night. Laying a hand on the stone near the entrance, I opened up my magical senses. The protection spell inside the walls zinged around like a ball in a pinball machine. It connected with my magic with a great flood of relief and tried to reestablish itself. Every time it poked its barbs into the stone and earth, though, it was zapped by another source.
The sensation reminded me of the ward that had been on Dalinda’s house. It was witch magic combined with something darker. Something cloying and teasing me. “She’s here, all right,” I murmured to the others.
As I let my magic expand, a flash of light went off behind my eyelids. The same kind of white light flash that had happened at Shadow Hill. Pain, fear, and a soul-sucking vacuum grabbed on and jerked my magic into the stones. My body hit the outside stones as well, my face smacking nose-first into the rough surface. A new agony exploded behind my eyes. The bitch’s ward had broken my nose.
This time, though, I was better prepared. One the drive over, I’d explained the situation and my theories on what Maria was doing with her blackmail attempt to Bri and Damon. I’d warned them this, or something similar, could happen. My physical energy was low and my wounds were still healing, but my magic was strong, thanks to a combination of my Frankenstein blood and my absolute rage.
Don’t piss off a vengeance demon unless you’re ready to pay the price.
As soon as I face-planted into the outside of the house, Damon and Brianna raised their own magics and connected them with mine, grabbing my arms and peeling me off the church. Blood gushed from my nose and mental images of what was happening inside played across my mind. Di was there and so was Neve. Dru and JR. Maddy. All of them nailed to crosses, all pouring blood from various orifices and wounds. Another teaser by Maria to make sure I came inside. A teaser that sent me vomiting into the nearby bushes.
There was nothing in my stomach so I dry heaved and spit out blood that ran into my mouth from my broken nose. After the worst was over, I set my hands on my knees and took several deep breaths, trying to clear my head.
Rage is an interesting emotion. At least for me. It emboldens me and jacks me up, but it also has a calming effect. On the inside, my demon yearns to draw blood, and yet, she gets Zen-like once she hits a certain stage. This is what she knows best. What makes her tick. Payback will be swift and merciless and she has absolute confidence in what she can and will do to her enemy.
When I rose and turned back to my boss and vamp bodyguard, my demon was in full force. Not out of control like she’d been with Toel back at Dalinda’s, but in control. I didn’t need to worry about the leash I usually kept on her. She had one target, and one target only.
Bri, seeing the change in me, took a step back. Damon, sucking in a breath, actually stepped forward, unafraid of me but still cautious. “Where is the most effective entry point?”
“No point in pussying around,” I said, walking back to the door. “It’s my house. I’m going through the front door.”
I felt him before I saw him. The priest emerged from the shadows off to our left, the silver crosses on his belt catching and reflecting the streetlamp’s feeble light. He gave me a nod. The simple gesture spoke volumes. He was there to help. “You should know,” he said quietly, “that if Maria succeeds in possessing a body, any body, we are all in great danger.”
No shit. “I’ll take care of her.”
“She hasn’t been able to stay permanently in the witch’s body. The human isn’t strong enough to hold her magic. That’s why she’s been trying to possess you as well.”
“Tell her the rest,” Damon said.
“The rest of what?”
Salmad nodded to Damon, said to me, “The seven sins have never been on earth all at the same time since Jesus exorcised them from Mary Magdalena. That is why you don’t remember anything between the time you left Mary’s body until you were born to earthly parents three hundred years ago.”
While that explained one of my questions, I was antsy to get inside and the priest’s slow, seemingly meaningless story grated on my nerves. “And?”
“There are currently six of us on earth at this moment. Maria, if she can take human form again, would make the set complete.”
“That’s bad as in super bad, right?”
“All seven sins on the earth at the same time will bring about the Apocalypse. It will open the door to the Beast and The Four Horsemen. The earth and its human occupants will be destroyed.”
As I turned that little morsel of information around in my head, my stomach threatened another revolt. “Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?”
“I tried.”
Damon quirked a damning brow. “As always, you efficiently avoided those of us who can help you the most with your job and personal problems.”
“Really? You have the balls to lecture me right now?”
He held his stance and the quirky eyebrow. “I have the balls, as you say, to help you out of this difficult situation. But only if you’ll accept the fact that you don’t have to confront Maria alone.”
“I ended her ass the last time on my own. I don’t need your help.”
“The stakes are higher this round. Both personally and professionally.”
Damn. I hate it when he’s right.
But he was right. This round, I couldn’t take Maria by surprise or trap her like I had the last time. She had my friends nailed to crosses and she was dead set on possessing a physical body and starting the flippin’ Apocalypse. The stakes were definitely higher than anything I’d previously faced.
You may be an island, Kali Sweet…
“We’re wasting time.” I motioned for the three of them to follow me in. “Let’s do this.”
“Together?” Damon had to drive the point home.
“Yeah, yeah, together and all that mushy Hallmark stuff. Just don’t get yourself killed. And don’t get in my fucking way or I’ll kill you.”
In the back of my mind, the intro to Hells Bells from AC/DC started playing as I touched the doorknob and it responded to my mental command to open. The bells of hell were ringing for Maria and if I had to personally escort her there myself, I would.
Chapter Forty-nine
My friends had been crucified in the sanctuary of the church.
Maria had used a variety of materials to pin them on the crosses. Wooden splinters, a few actual nails. All magically driven into their hands, their feet bound with ropes. I could sense her magic, sense her thrill at their pain.
On the way through my living room, I grabbed the iron poker Neve had stabbed me with and when we reached the doors leading to the one spot I never entered, I broached the first roadblock to getting to Maria aloud. “You’re sure I can walk on consecrated ground without burning to a crisp?” I asked Salmad.
He studied the wooden doors as if the answer were carved into them. “You said there are two vampires inside that have not burned?”
I was sure the ground in the center of the church was holy. Every time I got close, my demon froze. Even now, she was fighting her natural flight mechanism. “If my vision was accurate, that’s true, and I’m ninety-nine percent sure the vision is spot on. So what do you think? Consecrated or not consecrated? My demon is laying high odds that it is.”
“Mine is unhappy, too.” He touched a door with one hand and his body twitched. “There is a central core of purified ground, but it is the heavenly bodies watching over the sanctuary that imbue the space with God’s blessed magic.”
“Heavenly bodies?”
“Angels.”
“There are angels in my sanctuary?”
He gave me a look that said, of course, why wouldn’t there be? Then returned his attention to the door and narrowed his eyes. “G
uardians.”
“Of what?”
“The core.”
A mental light bulb went off in my head. “Is it a portal?”
“Possibly. An antithesis of the cemetery’s portal. A balance to the evil.”
Hot damn. “And how do I access it? Where does it go?”
He frowned. “If the cemetery’s portal leads to hell, I imagine this one, its counterpart, leads to…”
“Heaven,” I said, cutting him off.
“Yes.” He closed his eyes, sinking deeper into his connection with the room. “The angels only need to be called on for assistance in opening it, but you realize, Maria cannot be sent to heaven.”
“Why not? What could be a worse hell for her than being surrounded by good?”
Lowering his hand, he opened his eyes and cocked his head at me. One corner of his lips sliced up. “I’ve never considered such an idea, but it has truth in it.”
“What do I say to the guardians to get them to open the portal?”
“Let me handle that. You’ll have enough to take care of with Maria.”
“What do you want me to do?” Brianna asked.
“As soon as I have Maria distracted, you get Dru and the others off those horrible crosses.”
I glanced at Damon. “Tap into my mind, like you usually do, so I can communicate with you mentally. If I need to attack, which is sort of a gimme, I may need you to back me up.”
“It will be my pleasure.”
I drew in a deep breath, raised my protective magic, for all the good it would do, and opened the doors.
The room glowed with candlelight and an iridescent glimmer from the portal. During all my remodels, I’d never installed electricity here, but Maria wouldn’t have known how to use it even if I had.
“Bambina,” she cooed from the witch’s body, as she faced me and licked blood from a silver knife. She was standing in front of Maddy and a fresh cut was open across my friend’s stomach. How had Maria gotten hold of Maddy? She’d been with Cole last I’d seen her. “Finally. I thought you would never arrive.”
The room was filled with benches, old hymnals, and silver cups, crosses and other holy ornamentation. It looked as though Rad had turned his demon loose inside those walls. Even the towering stained glass windows with their scenes of martyred saints and the Crucifixion added to the overall chaotic scene.
Chaos. Rad.
My skin crawled as I walked in, an eerie sensation flooding my senses as I scanned the crosses for him. I couldn’t look at my friends’ agonized faces or I’d lose my focus on Maria, but as my gaze tumbled across the communion table, my heart stopped. Rad was on his back, his shirt torn open and his eyes closed. Blood ran over his skin from the runes Maria had carved in chest.
My feet tripped over themselves and my demon gnashed her teeth. My pulse pounded in my ears. I heard Di yelling at me to get out, Neve was chanting some kind of Wiccan blessing and Maddy was crying softly from her wounds. The scent of their mixed bloods permeated my nose and nearly choked me. The emotions swirling in the room clogged my other senses.
Rad seemed to be passed out or under some spell. Dru was quiet, as was JR. I wasn’t sure of the extent of their wounds, but Dru’s blood inside my veins warmed and I felt his magic massage through me, giving me a needed burst of physical healing.
“One more is all we need, Kalina.” Maria waved a hand in front of her lineup of potential targets, then she glided over to Rad and trailed her fingers through his blood. “One more tortured victim at your hands to make six-hundred-and-sixty-six sufferers.” She lowered her voice to a conspiratory whisper. “I thought Radison Beaumont should be the one since he betrayed us both. Mark him so The Beast will rise and we will run the world.”
“Running the world is o-rated,” I replied, using Maddy’s term. “And I’m not interested in a world where you exist.”
Wooden benches lay in random crisscross patterns around the outside edge of the portal. I skirted them and erected a shield that kept the itchy, intense energy coming from the portal at bay. As I walked with purposeful strides to meet Maria at the communion table, I grabbed Volante’s handle and released her from my waist.
The glass sconces on the walls vibrated as I passed them, the lit candles sending their flames high into the air in response to my raging anger. Maria felt the tremor as well, and before I could send my whip in her direction, she raised a hand and flicked her wrist. A bolt of magic shot out of the witch’s fingertips and a clap of thunder shook the building. I whirled to one side, the white, hot bolt of magic penetrating my protective shield, skating by my head and zapping the end of my ponytail. I heard a sizzle and smelled the distinct scent of burning hair.
The bitch had fried the ends of my hair. Like I didn’t have enough bad hair days.
My demon kicked in full throttle and I went back on the attack, but this time, I stayed put and sent Volante to confront her. If I could get her away from my friends, I could move her closer to the portal.
She raised her hand again, but a bench skated across the floor, courtesy of Damon’s magic, and smacked into her, throwing her off balance and sending her magic shooting off to the side. At the same time, Volante made contact, missing her upper body, but wrapping around the witch’s throat.
I could have snapped her head off like I’d done to Toel, but I didn’t really want to kill the witch if I could spare her, and since Maria was already a ghost, killing the witch wouldn’t dispose of the spirit. The iron poker was in my left hand, so I reeled Maria and her witch in toward me and went Neve on her, driving the poker through the witch’s stomach.
The woman’s green eyes, complete with way too much glittery eye shadow, went wide. She screamed, but it was Maria’s voice that came out. Behind us, Neve sent up a cheer, weak but happy.
Salmad’s voice echoed through the sanctuary, rising past the glowering stained-glass windows of saints and bouncing off the towering ceiling to flow over those of us below. “Heaven’s angels in this place, spread your wings and keep us safe. Release your hold on heaven’s door and accept this sacrifice evermore.”
The rhyme was right up Neve’s alley. She took up the chant, her voice rising with Salmad’s for another chorus.
Maria wasn’t going down without more of a fight, of course. As the witch’s body slumped to the floor, bleeding profusely from the stomach wound, Maria’s spirit detached itself and went flying. She circled back around, her ghost eyes black as night, candlelight reflecting in the bottomless orbs. As she flew at me, I reinforced my protective bubble and prepared for her attack.
Send me some juice, I told Damon. Like you did the bench.
A sudden wave of archdemon magic hit me with such force, I might as well have been a bench. It knocked me off my feet and sent me flying to meet Maria in midair, all Matrix style.
Unfortunately, the intensity of the magic sent me flailing around like a helicopter blade that had come unattached from its rotor. I cartwheeled across the space, hitting Maria’s ghost with a roundhouse kick without even trying.
My feet and legs passed through her noncorporeal matter, a chill sweeping over my skin and seeping right through my boots and pants. The good thing was, her transparent being allowed me to follow up with a smack of the poker and then my fist that still held the handle of my whip.
While all my limbs passed through her, they managed to still do some damage, especially when the poker cut through her from head to toe. She flinched and cried out, but refused to be deterred and wrapped her arms and her magic around me in that vice-like grip I’d experienced at the airport. Her succubus skills were the strongest I’d ever known and without warning, she drove magic into every orifice on my body. As if she had transformed herself into a ghostly octopus, her magic filled my ears, my eyes, my nostrils with suffocating penetration. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see, couldn’t hear.
And she didn’t stop there. My lower openings were also raped by her magic, the driving force of her desire and determination st
retching me until I thought I’d rip open at the seams.
My ribs were healed but her grip crushed them again as we tumbled together to the floor, either due to my magic or Damon’s latching onto our swirling mass and grounding us.
Maria could fight better in her spirit form in the air, but I had the advantage on the ground. I returned the crushing grip by feel only and wrapped my arms around her barely visible form, driving the poker into her lower back and jumping toward the portal.
The iron or my magic kept her from slipping through my grasp and also caused her to withdraw her succubus tentacles. I could breathe again. I could see. A sweet sensation, to be sure.
Even as my demon fought and arched back from the iridescent light at the center of the church, I felt a sudden magnetic pull toward the portal. Lowering the shield I’d erected, I felt a cool breeze brush across my face. Feathers.
Maria tried to dig in her heels and latch onto my demon, which continued to fight against the draw of the portal. When I’d sent Lilith to hell, I’d called on the powers of heaven to help me. This time, I called on my boss.
Push me, I ordered Damon. Push me hard, now!
There was a moment’s hesitation and then he did.
Thunder boomed again, this time loud enough that the foundation of the church shook violently. A new flash bang of light went off, obscuring my vision and sending a jolt of electricity down my spine. My nerve endings burned. Severe pressure exploded inside my skull. In my ears, though, I heard the others all taking up Salmad’s chant. The sensation of flying took hold, tugging me skyward.
I looked up through the white light and saw the ceiling was open. Lightning flashed like fireworks in the sky. A burning sensation invaded my collarbone, heat streaking to my heart and I let go of Maria’s spirit, more because I was totally dazed than because I was afraid that if I didn’t, I’d go to heaven with her.
Because, let’s face it, there’s no way God would hang out with me.
My ascent stopped as I cleared the open roof, one giant lightning bolt jetting out of the ether and striking me full force.
