by Michael Todd
Max nodded and followed him. He looked around as they went, staring at the smooth stone walls adorned with historical relics of the church. Small shelves were carved into the stone, holding chalices and crosses made of pure gold. He wondered what made them so sacred that they needed to hide them in hallways beneath the church.
They reached a fork in the passageway, and Damian led them to the right, running faster as they spotted the large metal door to the vault beneath. The priest put his arm out, slowing the trainee as they approached. “The door is open. They wouldn’t have kept the door open.”
Slowly, they crept toward the space and peered around inside. There were no signs of demons—or priests, for that matter. They looked around the chamber, not sure where everyone had gone. Max ran his hand along the wall, then stopped as it seemed to skip over through thin air. He turned back and leaned forward, finding a hidden entrance. “Damian, over here!”
They walked around the corner and stopped, finding nine church leaders lying on the floor, groaning in agony. They were all half-conscious, but even worse, they had all been infected. To the right was a large upended bookshelf with a demon trapped beneath it. Merely feet away was Father Brinkley. His head was bleeding, but he was still alive and the only one without a demon inside him. Damian walked over to the creature and kicked it hard in the face. “You tried and failed, hellspawn.”
He pointed the gun and pulled the trigger, striking it in the head. The demon slumped over and turned to dust, letting the bookshelf fall the rest of the way. The priest turned and stared at the victims, lifting his eyebrows. “Well, at least God laid them all before us to heal. I really didn’t want to have to manhandle another priest tonight.”
Max chuckled and pulled out his bible. “We should get to work before we’re burned alive.”
His mentor suddenly remembered the fire and jumped to it. Together with Max, they went from priest to priest, exorcising the demons. They got lucky. Not only were the priests so devout in their faith that it held back the demon’s powers, but they were all freshly infected. They would have no memory of any of it, except for hiding from the demons.
The young priest performed the last of the exorcisms and dropped his hand, letting out a deep breath. “That was a lot of exorcisms.”
Damian smiled. “That’s probably the most exorcisms anyone has done. We were on fire tonight, no pun intended. Now, all we have to do is get these gentlemen out and packed up, and then we can hit the road. If you go out the vault and keep going straight, you’ll reach a staircase that leads you directly up and out the side door of the church. The sun is starting to come up, so anyone who may have escaped will be going into hiding.”
Max watched him head for the door. “Where are you going?”
He blinked at him. “To pull the SUV around, of course. I don’t want you to have to carry the whole lot all the way out to the parking lot. You would be exhausted after that.”
The trainee threw up his arms and sighed as the older man disappeared around the corner. He looked down at the priests and shrugged. “All right, guys. It’s just you and me.”
Damian headed up the stairs and out into the budding morning light. He looked around the property, but there weren’t any demons on the outskirts that he could see. The fire department hadn’t yet been alerted to the fire, which was good since he wanted to get the heads of the church out first. He started the vehicle and drove it through the yard, parking it close to the door.
By the time he got out, Max was laying one of the priests down gently on the ground. Damian opened the back of the SUV and pushed everything up toward the front, making room. He then took a seat on the back end and watched as Max made trip after trip, laying each priest down with care before returning for the next one.
When he had brought up Father Brinkley, the priest motioned him to bring him over to the side and laid him carefully in the seat. Max looked at him, confused. “Where will the rest of them go?”
Damian closed the side door and led him to the back. “In there. Try not to pile them up like dead bodies but put them all in there.”
Max just blinked at him. “Why didn’t you tell me that when I was bringing them up?”
“You looked like you were in the zone.”
He slapped his forehead. “Yeah, I was thinking about not letting my legs collapse as I walked up the steps. When does this whole rookie thing end? I can tell now that slavery is really not my favorite part of this job.”
Damian stepped to the side, smirking as the trainee began laying the priests in the back of the SUV as carefully as he could. “You’re merely paying your dues. Everyone has to go through it. I bet you that at some point, even the three Wise Men went through it. One day, you’ll have some young kid of your own to torture. You will enjoy it better then, I promise.”
Max couldn’t help but laugh, knowing full well that he was right. And he had gone through his first real incursion and survived it. That was something for him to be proud of, even if he wouldn’t be able to move his arms for three or four days after. It was exactly what the whole thing was about, saving people’s lives.
He lifted another priest carefully and laid him down, looking at Damian. “What about the people?”
His mentor pulled out his phone. “I’m calling emergency services now. They’ll be taken care of.”
Max put the last of the priests in the back as his companion made an anonymous report to the authorities. The two of them loaded up into the front and headed out. Just as they pulled down the road, the sounds of sirens and the lights of the firetrucks blared out behind them.
He yawned and leaned back in the seat. “We saved a lot of lives tonight. That was pretty sweet.”
Damian looked at him with a smile. “That we did, young Maximus. I know it was hard for you to see the deaths, but they were all part of it. Those people weren’t in those bodies anymore, and I have to believe their souls were gone too. We will never really know the truth, but as a member of our church, I have faith in His mercy.”
The young priest agreed and turned his attention to the passing streets of London. They made a loop around the block, and he looked in the side mirror, seeing the plume of smoke rising from the church. Normally, something like that would have been disheartening, but all he could think about was the little girl they had saved. Sure, she had the mark of the cross forever branded into her arm, but she was alive, and she would have no memory of any of it.
Damian pulled up to the driveway behind the garage and stopped at the curb. Max gathered his things and yawned as he opened the door and stepped out. He turned back to his mentor and looked around him to make sure they were alone. “You going to meet the Wise Men now?”
The priest stretched his arms. “Yep. Gotta drop off the precious cargo before they start to wake up and wonder how they ended up in the back of an SUV. I don’t have the patience for that, and I’m not above knocking a priest out to save me the trouble of an explanation.”
Max laughed, knowing it wasn’t true—or at least hoping for the best. “Well, be careful. I’m starting to understand that you never know what will happen.”
Damian leaned his head back and laughed. “Get caught up on the soap opera. Eventually, if we don’t get called away, we’ll have some binge-watching to do. Just don’t watch past season twelve. I saw that whole season, but that’s it.”
He shook his head and closed the door, looking through the window. “Sometimes, you are really hard to nail down.”
The priest smiled. “I know. I like it that way. Always have. Now, go before you fall asleep on the sidewalk and wake up to Rose trying to sweep you down the drainpipe. You know she would try it.”
Max covered his mouth as he yawned again and turned, waving over his shoulder. Damian felt pride in what the trainee had accomplished, but for him, it wasn’t quite over yet.
Chapter Eighteen
He remained in front of the building, waiting until Max was safely back inside the house. Rose peeked h
er head around the corner of the gate to the right, and Damian waved apprehensively. She waved back and turned away from him, pretending to sweep the ground long before she normally woke for the day. He assumed she must have noticed he was gone and had been watching for them to return. The last thing he wanted was for her to know he had a payload of church heads piled up in the back of his SUV. He didn’t want more flower pots lobbed in his direction.
Damian continued waving, even though she had turned her back. “Not today, Satan—I mean Rose—not today. You can keep baking those toxic brownies, and I will keep tossing them in the trash.”
She looked over as if she’d heard him, and he put his hand down, diverting his eyes.
Just then, his phone vibrated in the cup holder between the seats. He didn’t even take the time to look at the screen. He knew it had to be the Secretary. Who else would call him that early in the morning?
He put the phone to his ear and yawned loudly. “Well, good morning, mystery woman. I have a really good idea. Let’s play a game. I hope you like games. Tell me what I’m doing right now.”
Damian reached up and pressed his middle finger against the windshield of the car. The Secretary stayed silent for several moments with only the sound of her breathing on the other end of the phone. He gave her more time, knowing she would have something smart ass to say.
She cleared her throat. “Yeh really should take care of your fingernails. Yeh have a hangnail on yer middle one.”
His mouth dropped open and he pulled his hand back, looking at his finger. Sure enough, there was a hangnail on his middle finger. He shook his head, astounded that she one-upped him every time. “I’m starting to think you are actually a drone.”
“If I were a drone, I wouldn’t have such a lovely morning voice, would I?” she asked.
Damian raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know. Technology is pretty fantastic these days. Either that, or you are a witch, and you follow me around on your broomstick.”
She sighed. “Witches aren’t real.”
“Oh, but demons are? And giants and weird red-eyed creatures that jump into animal bodies?”
The Secretary paused a moment. “How exactly would I fit a phone and a computer on my broom? It would not work scientifically. I know ye live in your own little world, but there is something called gravity. That broom would go straight down before I even had a chance to take it for a spin.”
Damian sat there blinking. “I don’t understand you.”
“Few do, Damian. Just live with that fact.” Her voice stayed dry and even-toned throughout the whole conversation.
He drew in a deep breath. “Okay, mystic, the heads of the church are safe, we exorcised as many as we could, and now, I need to know what’s next.”
“Don’t forget the fact that ye set the church on fire,” she replied.
Damian wrinkled his forehead. “Hey, that wasn’t me. That was one of the demons playing hopscotch across the prayer candles. Drapes and candles don’t mix. It was Max and I who got those who were exorcised out safely and the priests all the way down in the maze beneath the church.”
The Secretary wasn’t impressed. “Uh huh. I’m still trying to figure out how ye made it through the catacombs without asking me for directions.”
He pursed his lips. “You know…intuition.”
“Oh, okay. So now ye not only call that young lady Maps but intuition too? Interesting nicknames.”
Damian immediately jumped to the defense. “She has nothing to do with this.”
The woman breathed deeply. “Relax, yer secret is safe with me—for now. I don’t want to be the one to tell the Wise Men about her.”
He nodded out the window. “Appreciate it.”
The sound of typing issued from the other end. “Now, I am sending ye the directions to where ye will be meeting the Wise Men. They are waiting for ye, and have already been updated on the status of the job. They are glad that ye have retrieved the leaders of the church.”
“Good, maybe they won’t give me the stink-eye this time,” he grumbled.
The Secretary coughed loudly. “Well, if ye are going to deliver the leaders still piled up in the back of yer SUV, then I can’t imagine they will be too happy. I think if I were ye, I would figure something else out.”
“What do you suggest? Strapping them to the roof?” Damian rolled down his window and looked around the sky. He was at the point where he was betting on secret cameras following him around wherever he went. How else could this random woman know every move he was making?
She sounded like she chuckled, but he couldn’t be sure. “Yeh know, they don’t make little cameras with wings, Damian. I don’t think ye will find them chasing after ye like a small bug.”
He shrugged. “Hey, they could be exactly that. You could have cameras inside bugs that chase my SUV around. For all I know, you have them flying around in the house. You literally are the fly on the wall. That would be a severe infringement on privacy—and kind of creepy—but brilliant nonetheless.”
“Yeh can trust me when I say I am not the least bit interested in infringing on yer privacy, especially inside yer house. Though I still know everything that goes on at all times, so I wouldn’t try to hide.”
Damian grimaced. “You are the pits. The pure pits. I thought you were supposed to be helpful.”
He could sense her grin over the connection. “Yeh want helpful? Get yer ass on the road. The Wise Men are waiting on ye.”
With that, the Secretary hung up the phone. Damian pulled it away in shock, looking at the “call ended” message flashing on the screen. “It’s rude to hang up on people!”
He flipped through to the message with the address and put it in his GPS, then he turned the car back on and headed out of the city. The Wise men weren’t as close as they were the last time, which he thought was a shame since he now edged toward being awake for twenty-seven hours straight. Still, he couldn’t wait and take the chance of anyone waking up, so he cracked the window and relaxed, watching the scenery change to the English countryside.
As he reached to turn the radio on, his phone rang again. He picked it up and narrowed his eyes, expecting it to be the Secretary calling to harass him again. To his surprise and excitement, it was Calvin’s name on the screen.
“Calvin, how the hell are you?” Damian asked excitedly.
His friend was as excited. “Oh, Damian, it’s good to hear your voice, man. I feel like it’s been a million years since I talked to you. I woke up this morning, and something said, ‘Call your old friend.’ How are you?”
He pushed the cruise control button and relaxed his feet. “I’m good. Just got done with a job, and I’m heading out to the country to meet with the bosses. How are you? How’s the team?”
“Well, the team is good, although it’s pretty much me, Katie, and Timothy at this point. Of course, there is Joshua and the armory crew, but as far as main fighters, it’s Katie and me.”
Damian wrinkled his nose. “That must be hard to get used to. I can remember when we would go down to five guys, and the whole place would feel like it was empty. But then again, you haven’t been at home, have you?”
Calvin laughed. “You heard about that, did you?”
“It’s hard not to hear about a giant Mexican standoff where the hero sustains bullet wounds, lives, and manages to kill two big-time Mexican drug lords. You and Katie don’t seem to understand what keeping it low-key means.”
The merc was roaring at that point, the laughter overwhelming him. “You know me. You can’t take me anywhere. I always find myself in trouble. Seriously, I was there simply looking to have a good time. I had a sweet set-up, drinks, relaxation, the ocean, and what did I do? I went out to the club and found the one damsel in distress. Of course, now that I’m here with her, I wouldn’t take it back for the world.”
Damian grinned. “I like to hear that from you. You deserve to love someone who loves you back just as much. Hell, you’ve put everything on the back burn
er for so long, you deserve to be just like Korbin and Stephanie.”
Calvin snorted. “I don’t know about that. I like to have my memory. It might be weird not remembering a lot of years of my life.”
He tapped his hands against the steering wheel. “That’s true. So, what are you doing now if you aren’t at the base? Last time I talked to Katie, she was buying a condo in New York.”
“Yeah, she did, and it’s about ready. Right now, I’m with my lady and simply making sure she’s safe. Those guys are gone, but they have family, and I’m almost afraid to leave her here right now. Things are up in the air at the moment. I know Katie is helping the cops out there in the city learn how to control their demon problem. She also adopted herself an assistant. Something to do with her angel radar.”
Damian smiled. “You guys are always on the run, I tell you. Can’t keep up with you.”
“Yeah, true, but look who’s talking. You’re over there with the queen, drinking tea and exorcising demons with the Pope.”
He laughed. “I think you got that a little mixed up, but I’ll let you go with that theory.”
Calvin grew quiet for a moment. “Oh, damn, man. I’m going to have to give you a call later. Katie just texted me, and it sounds important. Be safe out there, man. Stay in one piece.”
“Will do, and you do the same.”
Damian hung up and turned on the radio, leaning his head against the seat as he drove. It was really good to hear from Calvin. It had been too long. He let his mind wander as he drove, thinking back to a conversation he had with his friend before Katie had arrived with Korbin’s Killers. Calvin had a tough day on the job and was thinking about leaving the mercs and just running.
“I know you think you will be happier out there, but you won’t,” Damian had told him.
The merc had become indignant. “Better than sitting around here, waiting for the next call, the next dead body, the next dead teammate.”