by Michael Todd
Damian came around and helped Katie out of the truck, looking down at her with nervous eyes and back at the church.
“Let me do the talking, okay?” he asked. “This is one of my bosses, who has asked to speak with me.”
“No problem,” Katie replied. “I never was very good at talking to church people.”
“Neither was I,” he said with a wink.
“Oh.” Katie grabbed Damian’s arm and whispered, “I thought you should know that Pandora has made herself look like a little baby demon.”
Damian frowned and looked at the group. The men stared back, waiting for them to approach. There was a chill in the air, something Katie hadn’t felt before, and between that and Pandora shrinking herself, Katie felt fear of the unknown for the first time in a very long time. She wasn’t sure what to expect, but she wasn’t going to move a muscle until Damian asked her to.
“Why don’t you join me?” he asked. “And do you have backup?”
“Damn right I do,” she told him. “Smith & Wessons, but I spell them P-a-n-d-o-r-a—which is pretty much all I need in this world to get past a human or a little demon in human flesh.”
“Don’t underestimate these men, Katie. I don’t know if any are infected, but I do know how powerful they are, Damned or not. This is my archdeacon, but he is also a decisionmaker within the priesthood of my religion. He, like me, was formerly a Jesuit.”
“Right.” Katie shook her head. “Still, I’ve got Pandora.”
That’s right, bitch, Pandora whispered in her mind.
Katie smiled and pulled her leather jacket closed over her red t-shirt and jeans. Beneath her jacket were two pistols; snugly tucked away, but accessible when she needed them. She wasn’t going to take any chances. She didn’t care if they were part of the church or not.
Not being a religious person, as far as she was concerned they were nothing more than powerful people, and they were upsetting her friend and coworker. It wasn’t okay, and she wouldn’t stand by and watch for long.
She followed Damian, looking around the parking lot and at the street. The church guys apparently had their backup right there with them. Katie didn’t sense or see anyone else in the area, but she could never be too cautious.
Damian’s anxiety level had increased, but you couldn’t tell by looking at him. He was just as ominous as usual, but with these men he had to force a smile to move across his lips. She knew it was fake, but there was nothing she could do to help him.
Gravel crunched beneath their feet as Katie and Damian approached the front of the church. Damian smiled and put out his arms, hugging the people waiting for them.
He was acting like he was happy to see everyone, but no one looked happy to see Katie.
In fact, she got the feeling that her arrival had not been in the plan, but that was okay. The last thing she wanted was for them to go through whatever plan they had—not without her starting to trust them, which, given the looks on their faces, was not in the cards.
Damian talked to the men, leaving Katie standing there behind him.
She didn’t know what else to do at that point, so she smiled brightly. She could feel the pistols pressing against her sides; they would afford her enough protection if she had to act quickly. She felt like she was in a western and had just walked into a strange bar.
“Damian.” The archdeacon swept an arm away from the group. “Come talk to us in private.”
Damian looked back at Katie and winked before walking over to join them at the top of the stairs. Two of the four church members led Damian toward the graveyard on the edge of the property, while the third man and the driver stayed with Katie. She didn’t like how they were staring at her, as if they were bullying her without words. She smiled at them again, but they just stared at her with blank expressions. Katie could tell they were up to something, but she couldn’t figure out what since Pandora was hiding instead of where she needed her to be—which was front and center, ready for action.
Katie shifted uncomfortably, clearing her throat and looking down at the gravel. She scraped the toe of her shoe through the gravel and looked back up at the men standing with her, then took a deep breath and turned toward the driver as she tried to figure out the best way to start a conversation. She had always hated moments like that, where you knew you should talk, but you didn’t know what to say.
“It looks like it’s going to be another hot day out here,” Katie began.
“It does,” he replied. “It’s a lot drier heat than California though, so I am okay with it.”
“Is that where you’re from?” Katie asked.
“I lived in San Diego for a while,” the driver said.
“It’s nice there,” Katie replied. “Really beautiful, but expensive as hell.”
“That is definitely true.” He laughed, but quickly straightened his face when he glanced at the other church member.
Katie tried to keep up the small talk while watching Damian and following their conversation. It had started out just fine, with hugs and smiling. However, as time began to wear down, Katie could see the situation getting dimmer by the second. Damian was no longer smiling, and the archdeacon was asking a barrage of questions. Damian wasn’t saying a word, just standing there. After some time spent refusing to answer any questions, he finally gave up and shook his head.
“How dare you!” the archdeacon yelled. “I am your superior, Damian. You will obey me, and tell me what I want to know.”
“I will do no such thing,” Damian snapped back.
“Then you will feel my wrath, and the girl with you shall be the first to go.” He chuckled.
Damian narrowed his eyes, staring into the archdeacon’s.
She tilted her head, surprised by his expression. Slowly he reached into his trench coat, moving his hand toward the special cross that he carried around with him. Katie unobtrusively started to back away from the two men, realizing that he might be reaching for the cross because the archdeacon had been possessed.
She slid her feet apart and kept her hands tightly at her sides, waiting to react if Damian did what she thought he was going to do. Both men looked at Katie suspiciously, but they had yet to catch onto what was happening.
The air was almost perfectly still around them. Katie could feel her heart beating wildly in her chest.
She couldn’t remember a time when she had felt this nervous during an incursion, outside of her first two.
This was different, though. These were men of the cloth, and very important to society. Damian slowly reached forward and grabbed the archdeacon’s hand, and pressed his cross into the man’s flesh.
It sizzled, and the archdeacon let out a bloodcurdling scream. Katie knew that was the sign to act. She threw a hard right hook, which clipped the driver’s jaw. She stood back and he dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
“I’m really sorry.” She winced. “But you never leave someone at your back.”
The driver groaned as Katie turned to the other church member. The two of them did a little dance, reaching for guns but not shooting yet. She wasn’t even sure he had a weapon on him, but she sure as hell did not want to find out if she didn’t have to.
Slowly they circled each other, eyeing each other from top to bottom to size up the competition.
When they had turned in a complete circle, the guard lunged forward, trying to take her down. She dodged and pulled out her gun, smacking him hard in the back of the head. He groaned and fell on top of the driver, out cold. Katie winced again, knowing that was going to hurt badly when he finally woke up. As she straightened up, a bullet whizzed past her head.
Katie ducked, and turned to see what was going on with Damian and the other man. Damian was fighting the archdeacon, and the other man had aimed his pistol right at her. She grabbed a knife from her side and threw hard. The guy was thirty yards away, but she hit him squarely in the thigh.
“Don’t kill anyone,” Damian yelled. “Tie up anyone who is unconsci
ous or hurt. We need them to stay alive for now, and I need you to make smart decisions.”
Katie nodded and looked down at her hands. Before she could even think of calling Pandora back into the situation, there was an ear-splitting scream from across the lawn. The guy who’d had the knife thrown into his leg was reacting to the metal, so Katie knew that he too had been infected. He went down a second later.
Damian blocked as the archdeacon’s arm crashed down on top of him, knocking him to the ground. Katie’s eyes widened as she headed toward him, determined to help him. As she got closer, though, he put up a hand and shook his head.
“This is my fight,” Damian snarled.
Katie slowed down and finally stopped, understanding how delicate the situation was. She watched as Damian stood back up and growled in anger—not at the archdeacon, but at the demon who had taken his body.
It was obvious to Katie that Damian cared for these people, and that watching them do such terrible things was really hard on him. He moved to the side, letting the archdeacon’s arm glide past him before grabbing him by the shoulder and punching him in the gut. Damian’s knee rose as the archdeacon’s head went down.
Katie winced when the two connected. The archdeacon went down just like his driver had; a giant pile of man on the ground, completely and totally unconscious.
Damian put his hands on his knees and looked at the ground, breathing heavily. All the demon-infested humans were unconscious, but Katie had no idea how long they would stay that way. When Damian had recovered somewhat, Katie went to him.
“We need to get these people tied up and out of harm’s way,” Damian said. “Go get the rope out of the truck, and we will move them inside the church.”
Katie nodded her head and jogged back to the SUV, grabbing the rope from the back and helping Damian carefully carry each of the men into the lobby of the church. Once they were tied up securely, he checked each of them for a demon. Sadly, all were infected.
“I just can’t believe that these leaders of our religion could be overcome in their faith,” Damian growled, shaking his head. “It makes me so damned sad on so many levels.”
“I know.” Katie put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Damian. I know this must be hard for you.”
Two of them have very sneaky demons in them, Pandora explained. And the third never believed in the first place.
“Damian, would the archdeacon—the man you know—would he rather be alive with a demon, or dead?” Katie asked.
“I would have thought dead, but now I am not so sure,” Damian replied.
“Don’t lose faith, Damian.” Katie cracked her knuckles. “We don’t know the story yet, but we will very soon.”
Chapter 8
Katie watched the men as they began to stir, growling and pulling at the ropes binding them.
Damian stood to the side, not wanting to hurt any of them and trying to figure out a way to get them back without killing them.
These men were important to the church and to Damian personally, and it was his duty to make sure as best as he could that they returned safely to where they had come from. Katie walked toward the archdeacon and squatted in front of him. He growled and snapped at her, his eyes growing larger by the second.
It wasn’t anger in his eyes, or even fear. It was recognition.
“You!” he hissed. “You are a wanted demon, my dear.”
“Get in line for your chance to snag her,” Katie told him with a smirk.
“You are actually the one I was trying to find for T’Chezz.” He gurgled in laughter. “He wants your pretty little head on a platter.”
“Well, it looks like you found me.” Katie smirked. “Now what are you going to do?”
Damian stood back and watched Katie’s interaction with the archdeacon, trusting that she wasn’t going to physically damage him.
She turned to Damian. “Got anything to put in his mouth?”
Damian turned left, then right, not really sure what she was asking for. He reached into a nearby pew and grabbed a small hymnal. He slammed it a couple of times against his leg, and then handed it to her. “This work?”
“Yessss.” Katie’s voice wasn’t entirely her own as she took the small book and turned it so that the spine was toward the archdeacon. She grabbed the man’s cheeks and hissed, “Open up!”
She slid the book between his teeth.
Damian’s eyes grew large and the hairs stood up on the back of his neck.
A muscular paw came out of her chest, its skin scaly and black and the claws long and sharp. It went into the archdeacon’s chest and grasped something inside tightly.
The archdeacon’s body began to shake, his eyes rolled back, and foam formed at the corners of his mouth.
Now Damian understood. She didn’t want the archdeacon to bite his tongue.
The archdeacon snarled wildly, and although Damian wanted to help, until that demon was removed there was nothing he could do. Katie’s eyes grew red as her demon started to pull the archdeacon’s demon from his chest.
“Demon,” Katie called, her eyes now completely red. “Sacerdos ex hoc veni! Sacerdos ex hoc veni! Omnia sancta, eximes te!”
“What are you doing?” Damian yelled.
“I’m trying to coax the demon out so I don’t hurt your friend,” she explained. “Otherwise this will beat him up so badly that he will wake up wondering what the hell happened to him, with no recollection of a demon invasion.”
“Please.” Damian’s voice was a whisper. “Just help them.”
Katie screamed loudly, and her voice echoed through the old church. She needed to pull the demon’s attention away from the priest. The paw clenched tighter inside the archdeacon’s chest and he groaned loudly, wheezing for air. She knew if she didn’t get that demon out of him soon, he was going to die.
“Sacerdos ex hoc veni! Sacerdos ex hoc veni! Omnia sancta, eximes te!”
After several attempts, she was able to pull the demon out of the priest’s body. As soon as the demon was removed, the priest collapsed and his breathing returning to normal. Katie stood up. The snarling and hissing from the demon apparition in front of her grew loud as she allowed Pandora to speak through her.
“I can make you a delicious deal,” Pandora cooed.
“What is that?” He chuckled.
“If I were you, I would keep the laughter to a minimum,” Pandora growled. “I will not destroy you completely if you tell me who’s trying to find our weapons and stash.”
“I will tell you nothing,” he growled.
She laughed. “Okay, then I hope you enjoy the fortieth level of hell.”
“Wait,” he said, becoming very quiet. “There may be someone you know working to find those weapons. Your human let the cat out of the bag in LA, and now T’Chezz wants her head and her swords on a platter. There has been nothing like this in over a thousand years. You think that because you are a Seventy-Two you can just allow it to happen? Even help these humans?”
“You are not fighting for our leader,” Pandora snapped. “You are fighting for a demon who thinks he should be a leader; a demon who will get what is coming to him. If I were you, I would get out before it gets really bad. You know you can see it coming.”
“I will only get out of this when you are buried in hell and my leader is standing in his rightful place on top of mounds of human bodies,” he growled. “You do not scare me. You are weak and pathetic. You can’t even control your human.”
Pandora hissed and lifted the demon high into the air, squeezing with a passion unlike anything Damian and Katie had seen to date. Light burst from the demon’s chest as she chanted. As wind began to blow through the small church, Damian stood back and covered his head, trying stay out of the path of flying debris.
“Ad inferos enim tuo tu et daemonium parum est amicitia,” Pandora hissed. “Back to hell for you, and your little demon friends too!”
As the demon screamed in agony, Pandora burst into a deep maniacal laug
h.
There was a bright flash of light, and the demon was gone. The church stilled.
Damian watched in shock as the demon paw retracted back into Katie’s chest and she let out a deep breath, cracking her neck back and forth. The archdeacon was slumped over but breathing, and Damian was still in one piece.
There were two more demons to dispose of, but Katie took a moment to gather herself. She was woozy; unlike before, when she had bounced right back.
That demon was stronger than most, Pandora told her. It takes a lot out of you for something like that, but trust me—it will be easier with these two numbskulls. They think they are badass, but they really are puny little suckling demons.
Katie shook her head and looked at Damian. The priest was expressionless, just standing there with the cross in his hand. She steadied herself and finished the project, removing the demons from the other two men.
The only one who had not been infected was the driver. Damian agreed to talk to him about what had happened and what to do next, so that he could choose whether to have his mind wiped.
The rest of them would wake up unharmed, with no recollection of what had happened there that day. It had been a success for the most part; no one had been seriously injured, and the infected had been exorcised.
Damian was relieved, and made the sign of the cross when Katie wasn’t looking. Perhaps, he thought, you should judge a person by their actions, not their words.
Katie went over and sat down in one of the pews, staring up at the church’s stained-glass windows. The night had passed as they dealt with the demons, and it was well into morning.
Damian was getting the men from the church cleaned up and situated so that their people could come pick them up. Luckily, since they worked for the same ministry as Damian, there was no real explanation needed for what had happened. Katie turned back toward the front of the church and leaned back against the wood. She wasn’t a religious person, but she had to admit that the church had a calming effect.
