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by Charles W Jones

  The first time he had met Cody, Eli had wondered, even with the distraction of Belphegor, what it would be like to be with him. Now he was seeing the passion firsthand and had no disappointment.

  Unfortunately, this was not the time to learn the lines of his muscles or the way their passion ignited as they moved and sweated together.

  Sitting back, Eli groaned; now was not the time. Cody took his hand without looking in his direction, squeezing it lightly, then released it. Before they faced the other, they needed the protection of the shirt and vest they had hurriedly removed.

  “Timing is such a bitch sometimes,” Eli said, opening the door and standing on the crumbling pavement. “How about a walk along the shore instead?”

  Cody joined him, and they walked hand-in-hand down the incline of the boat ramp to water’s edge. In the back of his head rang his lust, it still wanted to know Eli, to devour him.

  He pushed away the impulse to take him, turning his attention to the high level of water shooting under the causeway, and lapping at the embankment. Noticing how the mud and sand clung to the boots Eli had lent him, he was glad he wore them.

  “Are you going to stick with your tape recording lecture tonight?” Eli asked, bringing Cody out of his empty thoughts of muddied boots.

  Cody wrinkled his brow. “Not sure what you mean.”

  “You’ve pretty much said the same thing two nights in a row.” Eli stopped, turning toward Cody. “You have no idea what you say, do you?”

  Thinking about his two performances, he didn’t find any trace in his mind of what he had said to the people in the theater and those at home watching on TV.

  He shook his head, and answered, “Mostly the end.” He stared into Eli, again his lust rushed to the front, demanding he take the man and finish what they had started.

  He leaned forward to kiss Eli, but the man stepped back, releasing his hand. A strange flash of blue had burst from Cody; his hand desperately reached for the man he wanted.

  Eli moved closer to the water’s edge and farther away from Cody, knowing from seeing the burst of blue that Cody wasn’t in control and didn’t know what he was doing. Confusion tilted Cody’s head, trying to understand why Eli had pulled away.

  “Tell me what you remember from yesterday,” Eli spoke softly, his voice almost drowned out by the water surging along the shore.

  “Where do you want me to start?” The blue faded from his hazel eyes.

  “How about when you woke up.”

  Puzzled why Eli was inquiring about the day before, he remembered something Hector had said about Belphegor and him having sex, which he didn’t remember.

  His mind flashed to the day before, and he told Eli what he saw—the tumbleweeds engulfing Nathan and Leona’s house and their removal. Then he had snuck into the apartment to gather a change of clothing, which he didn’t wear and didn’t know where his go-bag was.

  Followed by walking to the park a few blocks away from where he sat at the picnic table. Afterward, there was nothing until he entered the theater’s backdoor—Finishing his account of events, he said, “Tyler was upset when I came in like he was afraid, but Belphegor was calm.”

  “Maybe not.” Eli shook his head. “Because he’s in you. Your story about God visiting you as a child. It wasn’t God. It was Bel…” Cody nodded his head in agreement. “Is it when he gave you something?”

  “Hector says so, but she didn’t know more,” Cody added.

  Eli returning to Cody’s side forced himself not to take his hand with the thought Cody cannot control what Belphegor wanted him to do. Under ordinary circumstances, he would have had no trouble succumbing, but this was Belphegor doing what he did best, stalling.

  As they walked up the incline, Eli said, “No matter where you go, what you do, he knows. I don’t know whether he knows all the details and every word, but he knows enough not to worry that you’ve left him.” Opening the car door, he wanted to race around to the other side and kiss him deeply. “But I think I know how to fix it.”

  Chapter Forty-Five

  And if thou say in thine heart, "How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken?"

  Deuteronomy 18:21, KJV

  Cody knew the area but didn’t know where Eli was taking him. He had driven east, toward town, and then turned onto the dirt road below the bluff, leading back to the reservoir.

  Dust plumed behind them as the old car sped along. A road, parallel with the shoreline, intersected with the one they took. Barely slowing, Eli turned with a hoot. The washboard eroded into the earth rattled the car to the point Cody expected it to disintegrate at any moment.

  A small group of pronghorn antelope raced across the prairie, running the same direction as the car, then they veered gracefully to the east.

  Closing on them quickly another road came into view, crossing their path. They continued passed to the unknown destination. A lone coyote stopped its hunt for a rabbit or mouse, ears flicking their direction, ready to dash away if the car moved toward it. The vehicle slowed, Cody glanced at the driver who winked at him.

  Cody wondered why they were stopping in the middle of nowhere. Looking across the horizon, all he saw were the green-gray clumps of sagebrush and irregular-shaped, wind-blown sandstone.

  He used to love coming out here with his dad and brother. They had explored the land on Saturday afternoons, being one with nature and the hot sun overhead. In the road ahead were deep ruts (the reason they had slowed), Eli turned the wheel, maneuvering the car through the brush and grass scrapping the bottom of the car.

  Once they were passed the obstacle, the car returned to the road, accelerating. Miles passed, and still, Cody had no idea where Eli was taking him. He started to speak his curiosity, but their unspoken pact for silence on their journey kept his mouth closed; he trusted Eli, though he had been reacquainted with him a few hours.

  On the next road, a green pickup truck ambled east. At the rate they were going, a collision was sure to happen if the car didn’t slow its pace. Eli stopped at the intersection, waiting for the truck to be far enough ahead so he could continue the speed he’d maintained much of the way. Still, neither spoke but gave the other sideways glances.

  Satisfied the truck wouldn’t cause them any delay, Eli pressed the gas pedal down, spraying dirt behind them. Less than a mile away, the black stripe of the highway came closer to them. Out the passenger window, Cody saw the small building and orange windsock, marking the spot known as the airport but was better defined as a landing strip, which still gave it too much credit.

  At the highway, Eli turned the car south, heading back to town but at a slower speed than they’d traveled on the dirt roads across the plains. Less than a mile from town, the car turned onto another unpaved road.

  A half-dozen trailers dotted the land along the road, and Cody realized they were going to Connie’s place, though he wasn’t sure why. His guess turned out to be correct. Eli stopped the car. Dogs yelped and bayed, running toward them.

  “You can’t come in.” Eli broke the silence. Cody raised his brow to the statement, and his tour-guide explained, “She doesn’t need him in her house.” A dog lunged at him as he opened the door, tail wagging excitedly. “Play with the dogs.” Giving a mirthful grin, he pushed the dog back. “But keep them out of the car.”

  Cody watched Eli climb the wooden steps, and knock on the door. No one came to open the door, but he went inside. Two dogs, one black, the other golden, sat looking at him, tails brushing the dirt, noses sniffing the air. Having nothing else to do but wait, he carefully opened the door and slid out of the car before the canines jumped inside.

  The dogs tired of his attention ran off to the shaded area behind the trailer. Several cars sat around the lot in various levels of disrepair.

  His mind wandered to the adventures he, Tyler, and her kids had had as children when the family had lived at the Shanley; besides the few nightmares he had when they had stayed with them when their parents were out of town
, he had mostly fond memories of visiting there. He had hated the basement as a kid and hated it now; at least now he knew why.

  The sun crawled toward the western horizon. Becoming restless from waiting, he’d walked down the road away from the trailer and the highway. The farther he walked, the more his mind cleared. He stopped at the road’s end, taking in the desolate landscape before him. The breeze rustled through the brush and weeds tumbled with its breath.

  A far-off voice called his name, but he didn’t turn to see who had requested him. The air around him cooled. A hawk soared in the air, dipping with the currents, then swooped to the ground, returning to the sky a second later with a writhing mouse in its claw.

  The voice beckoned for him again; he still wanted the serenity to hold him a while longer and paid no attention. The landscape blurred. A whirring churned toward him. Repeated words filled his head. At first, they made no sense, but the harder he concentrated, the more he understood.

  Warmth blossomed on his shoulder and spread across his back, causing blood to rush to his groin. The sensation was extraordinary. His body felt free.

  The words filling his head had stopped short, the coolness around him melted with the breeze. He focused again on the hawk in the sky and the sagebrush rippling like water across the plains. The shadow of his companion stretched toward the horizon. He turned his head, finding the tufts of hair growing from Eli’s upper lip tilted low with the concerned frown on his mouth.

  “You all right, buddy?” Eli asked, watching the clarity return to Cody. “I’ve been calling you for a while.”

  “I…I’m not sure what happened.” He didn’t know how long he’d been standing at the end of the road, and not wanting to admit to Eli, changed the focus from him, “You figure out anything with Connie?”

  “Yeah, but nothing quick. Even with a seasoned Medicine Man, it could take days.” The hawk turned its head toward them as it glided in the current. “We should head back.”

  Connie watched them from the window, feeling some remorse for not guiding Eli. Her responsibility was her family and keeping them safe. Angering Belphegor promised attacks her charms weren’t strong enough to protect from. The beast he’d put together—she shuddered, not wanting to think what it was made from—had found its way to them. No, it was best to allow things to unravel as they should without her interference.

  Belphegor watched from the window. It amused him how they thought they were so sneaky, running around town and across the country as though there was anywhere they went that he didn’t see. Even Eli’s meeting with Mica had been monitored, leaving him laughing; the Principality’s manipulation had failed, though narrowly. The link between him and Cody wasn’t going to be severed so easily.

  No one, but he and Lucifer, knew what had been discussed during their impromptu meeting the evening before, making the group of friends nervous. The wretched Watcher had heard what they had wanted to her hear, and he was sure she’d passed it along to the Choir.

  Tonight was the night his delightful creation was free to roam the land to do as it wished. After all, they’d freed it. He no longer needed to hand-feed the beast, it was strong enough to survive, and take on whoever stood in its way.

  His only regret was not stopping the souls from taking the local woman. Someone was sure to notice her disappearance sooner than the out-of-towners, knowing her children were already the first to be crying about her absence.

  He didn’t need the authorities poking around in his private affairs. Her car was the only evidence linking her to the Shanley, but Mark had taken it away, leaving it where it was undiscoverable for years to come.

  No one dared stand in his way. Eli and his merry band of humans think they have a chance against him, but ultimately, what can they do? God will come soon, ending Belphegor’s incarceration. He will bow before the Lord on High, appealing to His mercy, and be welcomed back into the folds of Heaven.

  The hawk blinked, scanning the plains floor for a rodent to devour. The one it had snared before had somehow freed itself from the talons gripping it. There, near the two humans, the darting movement of the bird’s dinner revealed itself. It dived from its latent hovering with a war cry. Cody and Eli turned their heads to see the bird ensnare the mouse in its grip, then shoot up as the impaled tiny body dripped blood to the ground.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

  Ephesians 4:19, KJV

  They sat in folding lawn chairs, watching Bergen hop in and out of the moat surrounding the house. After Nathan had conveyed Eli’s message delivered by Carrie, they didn’t discuss it further. Nothing had been left to say.

  More than an hour had gone by since the call, and they hadn’t heard from Eli, leaving them nothing to do but wait. Every few minutes Leona glanced through the storm door, willing the phone to ring. She wished Carrie had given them more information, but knew Eli hadn’t divulged the contents of his father’s journals.

  Bergen giggled from the shallow depths of the ditch, like she when Nathan had mentioned them. Even when asked what was funny about them, Bergen didn’t give more of an answer than a shrug before skipping back to the trench to play. Leona’s head turned again to the door with frustration.

  Nathan didn’t understand why they hadn’t heard from Eli; he should’ve been to the ranch and back to town in the time which had passed. What was their plan if, for some reason, neither Eli nor Cody returned, leaving this small group to fend off the evil sure to be released on Shoshoni and the world? Any plan of attack he put together, he tore apart; all were fool’s errands, which were sure to enrage Belphegor.

  After waking from her nap, Jen had eaten without speaking to anyone but Leona. Anytime Tyler came near, and she clammed up. Though he had asked her many times what was wrong, she didn’t answer and finding she wasn’t divulging anything, and he gave up.

  Her head ached with flashes of the vision the beast had given her. When she allowed her mind to relax, the horrendous acts played. She did as Cody had said on the Shoshone’s stage, and looked inside, leaving Tyler out. Otherwise, she knew his consolation would turn to sex, distracting them from what they needed to do.

  Tyler didn’t understand why she no longer wanted him near, and only spoke to Leona. He hoped once her mind had settled and had coped with everything, she would be back to herself. He didn’t want to think about the upcoming night’s adventure, but his mind kept returning to one scenario; the monster devours them all.

  With his mind clear and time to think, he still didn’t know the reason people were flocking here to listen to the thousands of words coming from his brother’s mouth saying, in all actuality, nothing, or did they? Was there something in what he had said which was the key?

  The phone rang, waking them from their thoughts. Even Bergen’s head popped up from the ground, staring toward the house. Leona was the first from her seat and in the house as the second chiming of the phone came.

  “Hello, Eli?” she asked. Clicking followed by a buzz came through the receiver. “Hello?” she said again.

  At first, she thought the line was going dead, but a hazy voice covered with static said, “Hello, Leona.” Buzzing interrupted the speaker, then the voice continued, “I miss you.”

  “Who is this?” Leona cried.

  “You haven’t come for a visit,” the unidentifiable voice said from the other end. “You’ve been to the theater.” A mix of voices and music like a radio station bleeding into another blared through the phone. “Please don’t fight.” More random sounds moved to her ear. “We’ll take the child away.” Another extended buzz filled the gap between the voice’s statements. When it returned, it was crystal-clear. “We don’t want to take Bergen, but will if you force our hand. We want to go home.”

  “What?” she asked, her voice rising in pitch, but the call ended with a loud click.

  The phone quivered at her ear in her trembling hand
for three seconds before it crashed to the floor. Her muscles released control, as she melted to the floor. She knew the caller. More than seven years ago she’d met him as she was crossing Main Street from the Buckboard Saloon.

  He had been standing near the corner. He was attractive—more so than he was because of the liquor in her system—he was tall, holding his cowboy hat at his side. She immediately noticed his boots had been shined brilliantly, because of the way they reflected the incandescence from the streetlight.

  The jeans he had worn accentuated his lean, muscular legs, and displayed a full crotch. A plain, white, long-sleeve shirt covered his torso with a silver bolo-tie around his neck. The smile on his face alone beckoned her to join him.

  She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been inside the Shanley Hotel. The new owner had done her best to clean it up, but the town’s attraction had been the store, down the block, and since it had closed fewer people stopped or stayed the night.

  Leona had never been on the second floor, so she stayed close as they ascended the poorly lighted stairs to the hallway. He took her hand, leading her to his room. Her heart rattled in her chest. A voice alerted her to leave. Shaking off the warnings, she stepped inside his room.

  The room had no windows, only a closed door, maybe to a closet. He turned her around to face him. Neither had spoken, and they continued their silence. Once inside the room, she felt safe, safer than she’d expected.

  He loosened the bolo around his neck and worked at the buttons on his shirt; the strong fingers worked nimbly down to his waist, then pulled the shirttails free of his jeans. His skin was pale in contrast with the dark hair on his head and stretching from the confines of his jeans. His smile broadened as his shirt fluttered to the floor behind him, leaving the bolo around his neck. She made no move to remove her clothing.