by Mia Bishop
He exploded in her mouth, pumping wave after wave of his hot seed down her throat. Even the portrait of Mary hanging over the doorway did nothing to ease his lust as she finished him off. He gulped and pushed back. “What did we do?”
“What do you think?” Rosa asked while wiping the last of him from her chin.
Shame flooded him. “Shit. No. This… This was wrong. We shouldn’t have given in. We are both… We have to confess—”
“Nico, relax. It’s fine. We are a man and woman, we took pleasure in each other. If we weren’t supposed to do it then God wouldn’t have made it feel so good.”
He froze for a moment and then started to feel the room spin. From the dizziness hitting him he was certain he’d turned white as a ghost. “This is bad. So bad.”
Something passed over Rosa’s face. Something worrisome. Her demeanor changed as if the brevity of their actions had finally sunk in. “Oh, Nico. You’re right. It was the wine. We shouldn’t have had it, it made us weak. It tempted us.” She placed the back of her hand to her forehead and sat down in the chair. “It wasn’t our fault.”
“There is no excuse. The wine might have lowered our inhibitions but the fault and blame still lies with us.”
She took a deep breath. “Okay, let’s just take a moment and regroup.”
“How do we do that? We just—” he didn’t say the words, “Right here in the church rectory. How do we regroup?”
“We,” she smoothed out her hair and situated herself in her seat. “We pretend it didn’t happen and we resume our conversation. You remember what we were talking about right?”
“Salvation.” He replied dryly.
“Right. Then let’s focus on that. Okay? Back on topic, let’s just not dwell on the other stuff.”
“What did you want to know?”
“Hypothetically speaking, if someone had a blackened soul, through no fault of their own, could they ever be granted forgiveness for the actions that their corruption had caused them to do?”
“No.”
Her eyes widened. “What? No. Why?”
“Because evil is evil. There are no two ways about it.”
“Nico, surely you can’t be serious.”
“I am. If someone is evil, then there’s no redemption for them.” He snatched up the wine bottle, cursing its very existence. If he ever redeemed himself from this mess he vowed to never drink another drop of alcohol as long as he lived.
Rosa was nearly in tears, though he couldn’t imagine why his answers were upsetting her so much. “What if it were me? What if I had a corrupted soul and was seeking forgiveness and salvation? Wouldn’t you help me and grant me what I need?”
“No, if you had a corrupted soul I would drive a stake through your heart the same as any other creature of darkness. End of story. There is no forgiveness- no salvation for evil creatures, Rosa. They deserve their damned life and after they die they deserve to burn in Hell.”
“Nico,” she was wiping away tears, he felt guilty for them but assumed they were from the guilt and shame of what they had done not his words. “Please don’t say that.”
“It’s the truth.” He stood up and dropped the wine bottle and his paper plate into the trash. “I don’t make the rules. I just follow them.”
“But you didn’t follow them tonight.”
“It is a mistake I will regret for the rest of my life.”
“I understand, then at the very least can you grant me forgiveness?”
He pursed his lips together, trying to understand what she really wanted. Finally, he asked, “For what?” She shrugged and motioned toward their chairs. He assumed that was her request. “For tonight? No. The sins of tonight fall on both of us and neither one of us will be forgiven unless we confess to the arch bishop and repent.”
She shrieked in anger but he was already out the door. He’d have to confess when the archbishop visited, next week. One week was a long time to carry this burden, but in the meantime he’d do everything he could to make things right.
He snapped out of the vision and gasped. “You wanted me to forgive you for your corruption…” His grip on her loosened, she wiggled in his grip and he stepped back to regain his footing. “I denied you.”
“Yes, you did. The next night you got the call about the girl possessed. She died in your care and the bishop excommunicated you before you could seek any sort of redemption. How does it feel to know you were set up before birth and when you had a chance to change it all around you blew it and sealed everyone’s fate?” She stomped her boot down on his foot and broke away from him. “You’re precious little Abigail. If you had done what was right, then we wouldn’t be in this position. She would’ve never been separated from her birth parents, you would have gone on with your happy little life in the Church, and the entire plan would’ve been abandoned.”
He wiped his hand over his face. “That’s a lie, even if I had saved you the plan would have still been in motion. Maybe Molly wouldn’t have died, but they would have found another way to ruin my life, to steal Abby’s life from her, and to set all these pieces in place. This was the long fucking con, Rosa. You turning good wouldn’t have stopped it.”
“But I would have been with Jack and I would have fought on your side.”
“Jack doesn’t love you, you crazy bitch. You know that.”
“He could have learned to love me. I would have been a lot better for him than Chloe.”
“This is insane, Rosa. I’m not to blame for this. Blame your mother, she’s the one who cursed you. Why don’t you take out your shit on her?”
Something snapped in her. She lunged. “Don’t talk about my mother, ever!”
“She’s the one who did this to you,” Nico dodged the blade of her knife and rolled to the side. “Shouldn’t you be taking this all out on her?”
“Fuck you. She is the only person who ever cared about me.”
Nico took a swing, catching her in the stomach. She doubled over, gripped her midsection. “What about your father?”
Through the coughing Rosa lifted her head defiantly. “My father is a traitor.”
Nico knew that look, utter and complete loathing. He blinked as snippets of conversations rolled over in his head. When his eyes widened he held her gaze. “Your father is Enzo, The Fallen.”
“How did you know that?” She shrieked, “He betrayed us again, didn’t he?”
Nico smiled, he shouldn’t taunt an angry woman but if setting her emotionally off balance was the key for getting out of Hell then he’d lie through his teeth to piss her off. “Oh yeah, he gave you up as soon as he made contact with us. You know that Angel, he loves to get in the middle of shit.” She was circling him now and Nico knew he had to make his words count. Get under her skin, set her off. Maybe an erratic Rosa would be easier to deal with than a logical one. “Daddy dearest even told us how to close the Gates and you walked right into his plan.”
More lies, but Rosa didn’t need to know that. Instead she glanced up at the mountaintop and narrowed her eyes. “The Gates aren’t closing. What are you talking about?”
“Tell me something, Rosa. Would it make any difference to know that I knew you wanted salvation and that’s why I refused? Or what if I said that while you were never worthy of saving, Abby was? Even though both of you were darkened through no fault of your own, she was worthy of love and you will always be a…” He paused, “A whore?”
Her eyes flashed with rage. There it was, the key. Comparing her to Abby, no wonder she was so eager to get him to kill Abby. Not only was Abby the key, but Rosa held a grudge. While Nico had refused her salvation he’d given it to Abby. Jealousy always worked for making someone unstable. Rosa leapt at him. He feigned a dodge. She screamed more. “I’ll kill you. You’ll die down here, your soul will be trapped and I will torture you for eternity.”
She moved right, he danced to the left. She scowled and slashed at the air hoping to hit him. Instead he grinned as he parried her moves. “I k
now you will.”
A slow smile crept over Rosa’s face and she thrust her knife at his gut. Instead of stepping aside Nico caught her wrist and drove the blade into his flesh. Its serrated blade ripped apart the muscle and skin. Searing pain erupted through him. He clenched his teeth as he continued to press the blade in until it reached the hilt.
He looked up to catch her eyes widening in shock. “Why would you do that?”
“So that,” he coughed, “no more demons can escape.”
“No.” She all but whispered. Her gaze shot up as the stone gates started to groan and move. “No! You didn’t. You can’t.”
He smiled and stumbled back. She tightened the grip on the knife and yanked it from him as he hit the stone wall behind him and slumped to the ground. “I won’t have mercy on you. I will make you pay for this.”
He nodded, letting his heavy eyelids close. “I know, but—” he looked upward at the Gates, “they will be safe.”
She crossed the distance and hovered over him. “No one is safe. They still have to face the Horsemen and the Beast. Hell’s army will still rise, we will still win. You’ve just prolonged the inevitable.”
Blood gurgled at the back of Nico’s throat. “We’ll see about that.”
Rosa wailed again and slid the knife over Nico’s throat.
The pain was excruciating, but temporary. Rosa’s claims of his soul being trapped seemed to be true because a moment after he died he was breathing again. Body made whole and ready for another round of torture. Rosa beamed down at him, pleased with herself over his newly healed body. “Ready to die again, Priest?”
“Just know I’ll kill you someday.”
She laughed and quicker than he imagined possible she gutted him on the spot. He screamed in pain, head thrashing, body convulsing. She ripped intestines from his body, showing them to him as he quickly bled out.
Death. The cold embrace. He welcomed the rush of cool air, the stirring of destruction and creation dancing on the wind. It was carrying him to the afterlife. But in one second that vanished. He was restored and sitting on the outcropping of the mountainside again, staring up at Rosa who was grinning from ear to ear.
More pain would come; his plan was already in action. Slow as it might be the Gates were closing and soon it would just be him and her locked in this bloody dance for eternity. He’d welcome it if it meant Abby and the others would have a fighting chance at survival against the demon armies. No more could come through once the Gate closed and, if they were lucky, maybe they could find a way to drive the Beast back in as well.
Rosa moved closer snapping him out of his thoughts. She smiled down at him, caressing his bloody cheek. “So handsome. Let’s see if we can change that.”
She brought the knife up to his forehead and pressed the sharp blade into his flesh. Blood rained down, coating his eyes. She stopped when the knife met bone and slowly drew it from one side to the other. Nico swallowed, mustering up his courage. An eternity of this shit was going to get old real fast.
The beating of wings caught her attention long enough for her to pause her task of macabre mutilation. “Go away,” she shouted.
Nico blinked and tried to get a good look at whoever had arrived. The blood made it difficult to focus, but he could make out a tall figure. Dark leathery wings and horns. He wasn’t sure who was there, but he was almost certain they weren’t an ally.
“I’m sorry, Rosalie.”
“Sorry for what?”
“This.” Something bright hit Rosa in the chest and sent her flying backwards. Nico tried to scramble back but with the rocks behind him there was nowhere to go. Heavy footsteps crunched the dirt beneath them. The creature bent down towards Nico and held out his hand. “This is not how you die, Nico Lynch. It’s time to return.”
He shook his head. “I’m dead. Hell owns my soul now. I’m trapped.”
The man was holding something out to him, but through the film of blood in his eyes Nico wasn’t sure what it was. “Drink this.”
“Potion?”
There was a deep laugh. “Hardly. This isn’t a cure for death. God has other plans for you, a rebirth. You will no longer be the human priest you were. You’ve gained your redemption. You will be a warrior. A Personification.”
“What do you mean by rebirth?”
The horned creature pressed the vial into Nico’s hand. “You died. I cannot rescue a trapped soul from Hell, but with this I can ferry a reincarnated soul from this place. It will bind with your soul and alter you enough to escape.”
Without another thought Nico gripped the vial, popped the top, and drank. He gagged trying his best to swallow the rancid liquid. The aftertaste was enough to make his stomach heave. The taste reminded him of the smell of spoiled meat. “Fucking hell, what is that?”
“Not the best going down I’m afraid,” the creature laughed. “But you’ll thank me when we get out of here.” Nico could feel something changing, a heavy weight being lifted from him. The voice sounded one final warning. “Think of something that makes you happy, Nico. Keep it in your heart as we travel, if you lose it for even a moment you might slip away from me and be lost in purgatory forever. Whoever or whatever you love, hold on to them so I can hold on to your soul.”
Those were the last words Nico heard. The world went dark again but this time it wasn’t death, it was something more painful than Rosa gutting him, more surreal than the feel of dying. The pain ebbed into ecstasy and then back again. Something in between being awake in fire and asleep in ice. Excruciatingly painful. And yet he felt comfort at the same time knowing the Gates would close and Satan didn’t have a hold on his soul any longer.
Abby… She was his only thought now. In this strange state of being all he thought about was her. It seemed like years passed, he was neither alive nor dead, he simply was. And all the while he thought of her.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Abby dropped to the ground and rolled as three arrows sliced through the air where she had been standing. Her head snapped up and she locked on a new wave of targets. Just beyond them stood the Beast. He was horrifying to look upon. She wasn't sure how he was changing but the longer he stood there the more human and less monster like he appeared. The air of demonic energy around him seemed to lessen as well. Jack had said the Beast couldn't be harmed until he took human form.
Every second that ticked by he was slipping further and further into a human skin. When that happened he'd be able to walk amongst the masses of humans undetected or maybe even worse, he'd walk through them like a magnet-drawing them all to him like lambs to the slaughter.
The waves of demons separating them seemed to part, clearing an unnatural path to her enemy. "Yeah, that's not suspicious." Seeing the obvious trap laid out in front of her didn’t give her any sort of insight on a way around it. With no other options she knew she had to take it. Hopefully being fully aware that she was walking into a trap would be the one thing to save her ass right now.
Nico would know what to do.
Nico wasn't with her though, she was alone. Abby winced at the thought. Would this fight be different if Nico were still here? Would the tides have changed by now? Jack had reassured her the Gates were closing but she’d yet to see the waves of demons ebb. To her, it felt like this battle was never-ending. How would she have handled this fight if she hadn't learned to kill? Nico had taught her every skill she needed in this fight. Things that no amount of straight A's and college classes could compare to and now when what she really needed was him by her side, he was gone.
The Beast eyed her intently, making her skin crawl. He all but crooked his finger at her to tell her this was just between the two of them. She curled her lip in disgust. If she was going to die tonight then she was taking somebody, or a whole lot of somebodies with her. Preferably the target currently egging her on.
Maybe if I die I'll be reunited with Nico in Heaven.
It was a comforting thought. Although she wasn't sure if it were possible for a va
mpire to be granted an eternal rest on the other side of Heaven's pearly Gates. She'd like to hope that her efforts in this battle wouldn't go unnoticed by the one being who was supposed to know-all and see-all. Or was that Santa Claus she was thinking of? At this rate all of her myths, religions, beliefs, fairytales, and fright-night flicks were all jumbling up into a giant knot inside her brain. For now, she'd just have to hope to see Nico again, when this was all over and when the world was safe.
She was close enough to the Beast now she could hear his breathing, like the snorting of an angry bull before he stampedes. His breath was putrid and the saliva pooling at the corners of his mouth was tinged green.
She almost took a step in retreat when he spoke, "You will not see him again, Vampire."
Her eyes must have been the size of saucers for as wide as she'd opened them. "You can read my mind?" She crossed her arms over her chest and added, "That's just great."
"Your Priest is dead; his soul is trapped in Hell and belongs to Lucifer now."
"You lie." She spat out the words.
"Do I?" His eyes danced in a flickering array of color that could only be described as flame.
She swallowed hard. He wasn't lying, or if he was she couldn't tell. She wasn't a truth detector and in all honesty she didn't have much hope anything better could have or would have happened. Their track record with lucky breaks was plunging into the negatives.
"He screamed for you as he was cut down and when screaming didn't work he begged for mercy. Your Priest was a pathetic attempt at a hero."
She shook her head. Now that was a lie. She knew Nico well enough to know that he'd never beg for anything. She gave a look that said 'you're full of shit'. The Beast grinned. Abby twirled her daggers and sized him up, her stance alone put him on guard. He knew she was done with the talking. He dipped his head and slid his foot. She answered his threat by squaring her shoulders.
They clashed like titans; the earth seemed to tremble beneath them. Abby was certain that tremor wasn't from her, but it did wonders for her courage to feel as if she'd moved the world to defend it. The Beast’s horns sliced through her sleeve and clean through her skin. She hissed in pain and buried one dagger into the creature’s shoulder. He reared back and she wrenched the blade free before he could take it from her.
