“I don’t know. I would have come to help Elizabeth with whatever problem she said she had. No one had to die,” I said. “I don’t know that Madam’s scenario is true, but it’s possible. Madam wanted me to tell you. So that you would be alert. She is arriving by train tomorrow as soon as she can.”
“It’s wise to be wary, but Elizabeth would nae do this thing,” Slater said. “Not willingly. But we can’t know who is controlling her now.”
I loved that he defended her, as she had fought for him. His heart was pure. Could I say the same about Elizabeth? I remembered her walking with Callie, the way the baby adored her, her absolute devotion to Callie, and her long quest to find her missing brother. It did not seem possible Elizabeth could be so evil, but I had learned the hard way that the worst evil, the evil that could break a person, was evil that came from someone you assumed to be good.
“Did you see Elizabeth, Ramone, and Callie leave?” I asked. “Were they alone?”
Slater shook his head. “I fell asleep almost immediately. Ramone left the room without disturbing me. I don’t know if someone woke him or if he heard something and got up.”
That spoke for itself, until Michael added, “It’s possible they didn’t leave of their own volition. They may have been coerced.”
Slater nodded up and down vehemently. “That’s more likely the case. Elizabeth loves that bairn and she loves her brother. If they were in danger, she would do whatever she had to do to keep them from being hurt. Leaving may have been her way of protecting us, too.”
“I agree. She would do anything to keep Callie safe. Even betray us,” Reginald said.
Slater considered that. “She would. She would nae want to, but she would die to protect that infant. She would likely sacrifice all of us.”
It was an assessment that stopped the conversation for a full minute as we all considered the danger to Callie, and to ourselves. “How can we find them?” I asked.
“We don’t have to go anywhere.” Michael spoke to me. “They’ll come looking for you.”
Michael’s words terrified me. I heard the truth in his pronouncement and I didn’t want to believe it. “If they’re after me, then we should leave Victoria, maybe drive to Gadsden.” I didn’t want to stay where Gabriel could find me so easily. He could find me anywhere I went, but we didn’t have to make it easy for him.
“It’s pointless to leave,” Slater said. “The die has been cast. We are here. No matter where we go, they’ll be there. Mission was the most dangerous place we could have been, because Lucais and his followers have been corrupted. We’ve improved our position by coming here. We have the safety of the kirk around us.” He hesitated before he went on. “If we leave Elizabeth, Ramone, and the baby, if they have outlived their usefulness as bait, he may kill them.”
I shook my head. “He won’t harm Callie, I hope.” But I didn’t know. None of us knew. Father Kilroy was listening, but he didn’t offer any support for my statement.
Slater grimaced. “If his goal is Callie, then Elizabeth and her brother are expendable.” His big hands clenched into fists of helplessness.
“We don’t know that,” Reginald said, trying to quell the rising emotions. “We proceed as if Callie and the Maslows are still alive. To understand their value, we have to know what Gabriel ultimately wants. I agree with Raissa. I believe it’s the child. Callie has potential we can’t even imagine. Her touch…she can heal. Think about the wound to Elizabeth. The gunshot was nearly fatal. When she held Callie, she healed.” He nodded at me.
I hadn’t had a chance to tell Reginald what Madame had told me. And I didn’t want to in front of everyone else. “It’s true.” I’d given Reginald the details of her wound. “I took the stitches out before we left Mission. She was already healing over them.”
“When Ramone held her, after whatever happened in the barn, he healed quickly.” Reginald looked at me and I shook my head. I didn’t want him to mention what I’d seen with the buzzards and Callie’s white-stone eyes.
“The child is special,” Michael agreed.
“The child is an innocent,” Father Kilroy said. “She must be saved, for I assume she’s never been baptized. The church Lucais installed in Mission doesn’t believe in baptism.”
He was right about that. But how did we do that? We couldn’t trust anything Gabriel said—or anyone who might be under his influence.
Even me.
“Gabriel wants power,” Michael said. “Power to turn the humans around him to darkness. He destroys their souls in his hatred of the divine creation. He craves their energy like a drunkard needs wine.”
“But how does Raissa give him more power?” Reginald asked. The room was silent as we waited for Michael to explain.
“Gabriel—though that isn’t his true name—wants to procreate. He wants progeny to rule the Earth. Raissa could give him children with vast powers.” Michael had hit upon exactly the same thing Madam had said.
“No!” I hadn’t meant to speak, but the thought was hideous.
“Not a chance of that happening,” Reginald said stoutly.
“What if there was a way for Gabriel to draw innocents to him?” Michael seemed to feel his way into his explanation. “What if he needs those who are inclined to work for a better world? Those who speak out for the helpless? Elizabeth has a talent. She and Ruth both connected with Hildy, a little girl who saw things she could never understand. Hildy could hear the voice of nature, of the wild things. Ruth and Elizabeth were helping her figure out what that meant.”
“And Raissa helps lost spirits find their way to move on,” Reginald said. “She helps others.”
Michael turned slowly to face each of us. “There are those who give and those who take.”
“The givers are marked with God’s blessing,” Father Kilroy said.
“There was a time when people believed in miracles. Now, so many of the old abilities are lost,” Slater said. “My gran knew a healer woman could bring a person back from near death. She came ‘round with some travelers each summer. Folks were afraid of her, but not my gran. My gran said she was blessed with a gift from God.”
“What happened to her?” I asked.
“I don’t know.” Slater sighed deeply. “One year she just didn’t come back. My gran went into the woods and said a prayer for her. I was a tot, and the doings of the grownups didn’t stick with me. That’s all I remember.”
The circle of stones at Ruth’s place. It had been a sacred place for many years. I’d assumed the Indians had made it to worship their gods and beliefs, and that was likely. But it could also have served another purpose. Had Ruth and Elizabeth used it too? Women in touch with the power of healing and helping others?
As if he read my thoughts, Michael said, “It’s fallen to us to stop this evil. I wish we could wait until tomorrow when your friends arrive, but I don’t think we can.”
“What are we going to do?” Father Kilroy asked.
Michael turned to me. “I’m sorry, Raissa. We can’t talk in front of you.”
“What?” I was outraged.
“You can’t know our plans,” he insisted. “If Gabriel is able to tap into your thoughts, your memories, you can’t know what we’re planning.”
Reginald put a hand on my shoulder. “He’s right. I hadn’t thought of it, but he is right. You can play an even more important role, Raissa, by thinking of false things. We’ll create a plan for you to know, and hope that Gabriel will attempt to feed off your thoughts. While—” He stopped abruptly because even knowing there was a false plan was dangerous.
“I can focus my thoughts, I think.” I saw real potential here. “I will let him know only what we wish him to know.”
“He’s outside,” Michael said suddenly.
“How do you know?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I just know. It’s my gift.”
“Is there a place of safety for Raissa?” Reginald asked.
“In the cloister. The sisters w
ill protect her with their lives.” Father Kilroy was pale, but he was not a coward. “Prepare, men. The battle has come to us.”
Chapter 33
The four sisters who resided in St. Lucy’s Catholic Church were older than I was. They moved about in the dim room I’d been sent to for protection like wraiths, lighting candles, murmuring prayers, and keeping a watchful eye on me.
The room was large and filled with a heavy wooden table and chairs, a hutch with dishes, and bookcases crammed full of leather-bound volumes. I took a seat in a chair beside a mullioned window where I had a good view of the churchyard and the street. The avian watchers were back. They made no effort to hide, roosting in plain sight in the branches of the oak trees that lined the front of the church. With a start, I realized that human watchers were there too, six of them, standing under the trees.
The men stood like vultures, hands dangling at their sides. Two held rifles. I wondered if it would do any good to call the police. I’m sure Father Kilroy had thought of it. I was pretty certain that no one was coming to rescue us. The only good news was that dawn was breaking. Light was spilling across the churchyard, and it was easier to see our foes. But also easier for them to see us.
I wasn’t much of a smoker, but I wished for a cigarette, more for the comfort of Reginald’s presence than for the tobacco. I was never as afraid when he was with me. Now it felt as if my heart constantly stuttered. Terror had me in its grip. I knew how powerful Gabriel was.
A big touring car pulled up to the church and I recognized that it belonged to Lucais Wilkins. He had at least five men with him, all heavily armed. They silently got out of the car, nodding to the men in the edge of the churchyard bushes. Slater, Reginald, and Michael had brought guns from Elizabeth’s, but the supply of ammunition was very low. I suspected the Catholic church had little use for bullets.
“Those are bad men,” one of the sisters said. She’d come up on my shoulder without my noticing.
“Yes, they are.” I didn’t say more because I didn’t want to scare the sisters. They were in danger because we’d sought refuge in the church.
“My name is Sister Teresa. Will they kill us?” she asked.
“I hope not.” I couldn’t tell her the absolute truth but I wasn’t going to lie. I had no doubt Lucais and his men would gut a nun as quickly as they would a deer or fish. These men were brutes, and in their eyes no life other than their own held value.
Another sister who said her name was Mary Margaret joined us at the window. We stared out into the street, where the rising sun was now giving definition to the rutted clay road and the buildings across the street. Gabriel suddenly appeared beside the car, but I knew the sisters couldn’t see him. I feared he could see me in the window and I drew back.
“What is it?” Sister Teresa asked.
“It is possible you may have to restrain me.”
“Why should we do that?” Sister Rosamunde, who’d retrieved Slater, finally spoke.
I had to trust that the sisters believed in good and evil. That they wouldn’t think I’d lost touch with reality. “There’s a dark entity trying to control me. I intend to fight as hard as I can, but I don’t know that I can defeat him.”
“Are you possessed?” Mary Margaret asked breathlessly.
“Not at this time, but it’s possible I could be.” This wasn’t what I considered a possession, in the classic religious sense. But because I had no training in fallen angels, I didn’t know if Gabriel was technically considered a demon. One fallen angel, Lucifer, had become the King of Hell. Stories of exorcisms were part of the fiction I enjoyed, where good could conquer evil in a ritual. I wasn’t possessed in the sense that the demon was inside my flesh, making me scream and rant and curse against God. No, Gabriel was far more insidious. I felt the tentacles of his thoughts sliding into my mind.
“We have experience with possession,” the third sister said. “I’m Ursaline. I’ve assisted in casting out demons.” She was a serene woman, older than the other two. “If it becomes necessary, I’ll restrain you. To keep you from hurting yourself or others.”
“It may not be necessary, but if I jeopardize the safety of anyone here, don’t hesitate.”
They all nodded.
Sister Ursaline asked, “This dark entity, do you know its name?”
“It calls itself Gabriel, and claims that it’s an angel.”
“What does Gabriel hope to gain by harming you and the people you travel with?”
It was a question I’d struggled with. “Power, a connection with a human, control of other humans to bend them to evil?” I shook my head. “I don’t know. A woman and a child have been murdered.”
“A child,” the nuns whispered.
“A little girl. An innocent.”
“And why are you a target of this Gabriel?”
I wondered if I should tell her the truth. She couldn’t help me unless I did. “I can communicate with the spirits of the dead. I see them. I help them to deliver messages or understand what happened to them. I assist them in leaving this plane.”
“Your gift has drawn this darkness to you,” Sister Teresa said.
She was so calm, eerily calm. “You don’t doubt me?”
She shook her head. “I’ve seen a powerful exorcist cast a demon out. It’s never without cost, but if the host is strong enough, it can be done.” She touched my chin and lifted my face to the light from the window. “You’re strong.”
“He has another woman and her child. A child he claims as his own.”
The younger sisters gasped, but the older one didn’t flinch. “Nephilim. The greatest desire of the fallen angels is to create their own children. To live among men and draw them to darkness. In the heavenly realm, angels know neither pain nor pleasure. Their jealousy of man, God’s creation that can experience pleasure, drove some to disobey God. It’s why they were cast out. If this Gabriel has lain with a human woman, the child is an abomination.”
“Callie isn’t a Nephilim.” I couldn’t prove it, but I also couldn’t let them harm her because they feared her. “She’s just a little baby.”
The nun walked away from the window, but turned back to me. “He is coming. He is very close now. Remember, when the entity is attempting to gain entrance to your mind, there is also access to his emotions, thoughts, and desires. Use that access, if you can.”
“How?”
“He’ll reveal a weakness. Watch for it.”
“You said you’d worked with possessed people. How do you cast out a demon?”
“I worked with a priest performing exorcisms.” She was matter-of-fact about something that I’d only heard rumors about. Even Madam, for all of her experience dealing with spirits both good and evil, had never witnessed an exorcism.
“Did you cast out a demon?”
“I’ve witnessed successful exorcisms, but—" she broke off. “They’re dangerous. It’s difficult to get the church to sanction an exorcism, but some priests and nuns do them anyway, if the need is great. I’m here because a young girl died. We couldn’t save her. We failed. My punishment was being sent here, to Victoria. But I know what to do if I must.”
“How did you know the girl wasn’t mentally ill?” I thought how close a young woman I’d been hired to help had come to an irreversible mental operation. Camilla had been possessed—by the spirit of an ancestor. And she’d almost had a probe tapped into her brain to make her docile and compliant. Luckily, we’d been able to prevent that from happening.
“Marcella had moments of lucidity when she begged for our help. She battled fiercely for her soul. I only hope she was freed from the shackles of the demon when she died.”
I’d read an account of an exorcism in Italy. I’d considered that the details might have been exaggerated. Now I found myself believing they were true. The possessed man had broken the bones in his thighs and arms straining against the restraints that held him. The demon had been cast out, but the man had never fully recovered.
&nb
sp; “When she died, where did the demon go?” This was a very personal question for me.
“A demon has no use for a dead body. They must flee or die also.”
“If this dark angel comes for me, he will try to twist my thoughts and emotions.”
She nodded. “We will restrain you. There are plants that can sedate you, too, but that would only delay the inevitable.”
“Have you performed an exorcism in Alabama?”
She didn’t answer for a long time. “Only one. On a young man who attacked a woman with an ax.”
I knew who it was. “Junior Albee.”
She nodded. “The young woman who was attacked accused Junior. There was an outcry against him. A mob was forming, claiming that Junior should hang. Junior’s father arranged for the exorcism and paid the church. The young man was saved from the gallows once the sheriff was convinced his devil had been cast out. He was damaged, though. The ordeal affected his mind.”
An idea had started to form in my mind. “Sister Ursaline, if I were to flee from here, what route would I take?”
“Father Kilroy said to keep you safe.” All four sisters gathered around me. “We won’t let you leave.”
“It’s just a question. I will stay here, but I have an idea. I need to know a secret way to leave, the details of what I would see on the journey. I may be able to trick Gabriel.” I needed the information quickly. I could feel the pinchers of Gabriel’s reach, like the legs of a roach, prying at my mind.
Sister Teresa nodded. “At the end of the hall is a door that leads into the back of the church property. Since the tornado two years ago, what was once a garden is now a wilderness. Deer and wild creatures come up to eat what we put out for them so there are trails that wind through the trees and thick bushes. You could take those trails.”
“Tell me the plants I would see. The slope of the ground. What I might hear and smell?”
She supplied the details of the old wilderness garden that stretched behind the church into the deep woods. There were no neighborhoods nearby, only the thick forest.
A Visitation of Angels Page 27
