Graves of Wrath
Page 23
“Well, join the club. There are plenty of others who want the same thing for me,” she said. “And do you know how I answer them when they tell me to die?”
The man continued twitching, his arms shooting around as if he’d been jacked up on electricity. “I don’t care, vampire.” He rubbed his crotch. “I could make you beg to be mine.”
Jess’s stomach nearly heaved, and it took a lot to turn the stomach of a vampire. She instinctively held up a hand, warning Britt to back down. When she looked at him, his blue light had escaped his solar plexus and was hovering in front of him.
The demon shielded his eyes from the light.
What do you know? It doesn’t like the light.
“You can’t win with angel fire either, son of Jibril. You aren’t strong enough against the army that is coming. We will take everything back. This is our place, and you will be in Hades, where you should have always been.”
Britt got closer to the demon, and as fearless as he seemed to be, the thing shrieked when the light nearly touched him. “Don’t come any closer. If you do, this old man will die a horrible death,” it said, then keened and slavered.
Jess considered that, but she didn’t stop Britt. “It’s lying,” she said. “Demons always lie.”
“Lies are truth,” the demon chanted about a dozen times. But it slowly backed away from Britt’s light until it was pinned between the wall and the Dumpster as Britt moved closer.
“You will pay, servant of the Lord. Yours will be a crime against humanity. I do not kill this human, you do!”
Britt looked quickly at Jess and she nodded, urging him to continue. Unexpectedly, the street person straightened and screamed. There was a knee-buckling cracking sound while his head spun completely around. His eyes bulged, his tongue protruded, and he dropped to the ground. Dead.
The shadow slithered out of him quickly and disappeared into the cracks of the brick.
“I didn’t expect that,” Britt said, obviously feeling the weight of the man’s death.
“It’s proof that we can’t force demons out without risking the host,” she said softly, hoping Britt could see the truth in that.
“But I just caused that man’s death,” Britt said, desperation weighing his words. “I killed him, as surely as if I’d done it with my own hands.”
She sniffed the air. “He was dying anyway, Britt. I can smell it. He had terminal cancer that was burning through him. It might have been a mercy for him to go quickly.”
“I’m not sure that makes me feel any better. But at least now we know if we threaten the possessed, the demons will kill the person they occupy. That’ll make it even harder to fight them.”
“Did you hear what he called your blue light, Britt? It’s angel fire. I’ve heard of that before,” she said. “Oh right, in the good book.”
He nodded. “But why should we believe him? Why didn’t Uriel tell me the light was called angel fire? It might have helped me understand it better. And the demon called me son of Jibril. I’ve never heard that, but it feels right. I don’t think the demon was lying about that.”
“Maybe.”
“Putting a name to your blue light might help you to learn to control it. If it is angel fire, Regent might know a lot more about it than we first thought. After all, he studied theology for years. We’ll ask him tonight . . . and warn everyone not to try to extricate the demons from the priests or they’ll die, too.”
Britt’s attention had shifted back to the dead man in the alley. “What will we do with him?”
She considered their options. “You don’t want to just leave him?”
“No. What if he’s not really dead but still possessed?”
“I hadn’t thought of that.” She yanked her cell phone out of her pocket. “Sampson, how big is your rental car? Is it big enough to take a body back to your lab for testing?”
“Yes, where are you?” he asked.
Jess told him what had happened and gave him the address. “We need to make sure he’s not still susceptible to demon possession after he dies.”
“Demon? That’s not really my field of expertise, but I can try.”
“Thanks, Sampson,” she said, then put her phone away. They couldn’t leave victims lying around the city waiting to reanimate and wreak havoc.
When Sampson and Regent arrived twenty minutes later, Jess noted that Regent had taken the time to lay a plastic tarp on the floor of the trunk. They maneuvered the man into the rented sedan and quickly closed the trunk.
Jess didn’t mention angel fire to Regent yet because she could tell Britt was still disturbed by what had happened. Since he’d learned he had angelic DNA, he’d been reading the Bible for any references to angels. Even though he’d found several mentions of angel fire, she’d never once equated those references to the blue light that emitted from Britt’s solar plexus. But it had done some amazing things. He’d actually healed three vampires. On the other hand, he’d also wiped out a cavern full of vampires descended from the Mayans. The fact that his blue light might indeed be angel fire was probably scaring the hell out of Britt. Theological references touted angel fire as being a weapon unlike any on Earth. He couldn’t help but be worried that he barely had control of this weapon that most often seemed to act of its own volition.
She bit her lip. That part concerned her, too.
Chapter Seventeen
MORANA WAS THE last one to arrive at Regent’s apartment the following night. She and Veronique eyed each other suspiciously over the war-room table, before she moved to stand next to Regent, who took her hand in his and squeezed.
Jess watched them from the other side of the table.
Even though she tried to hide it, Morana didn’t look thrilled by Regent’s affection but then, she was a vampire. She didn’t need constant reassurances of love . . . and most likely didn’t want it, either.
Before anyone got started on their findings, Veronique stepped up. “I have bad news, I’m afraid. We can’t kill the demons once they’ve invaded our people, or the demons will kill them. In fact, last night we threatened a possessed person and the demon walked him off the side of a building.” She swallowed. “It was horrible.”
“Unfortunately, we had a similar experience with a homeless man in an alley,” Britt said. “We were going to report the same thing.”
Regent cleared his throat, and all eyes turned toward him.
“What is it, Regent?” Jess asked.
“I found something in the archives. As Jess and Britt know, I believe this happened before, during the French Revolution. A group of demon worshippers attempted to awaken demons by calling them through the bones under the city. They used an incantation that lured them up from hell . . . but it backfired when the demons became vampires. Luckily, the church moved in and somehow stopped the insurrection.”
Jess’s heart skipped a beat and she pressed against Britt for moral support. “We can’t wait for the demons to turn into vampires in order to stake them. We have to stop this now. Do you have any idea how the church stopped them?”
“Unfortunately, no. That wasn’t in the document I found. But I’ll keep looking,” Regent said.
“It doesn’t look like it’s happening that way this time, anyway,” Britt said. “The shadows haven’t shown any sign of becoming vampires. Besides, they’re killing vampires, as well as humans.”
“And if we kill vampires, it will break the tenuous pact we currently have with Parisian vampires,” Veronique said.
Morana snorted and Veronique ignored her.
“I’ll discuss this with some of my colleagues,” Regent said. “If there is a way to stop them, we will find it.” He drew in a deep breath.
While Britt stared down at the map, she could see the tension wafting off him. “How many have been possessed so far?” he a
sked.
Veronique bit her lip. “It’s hard to say. Last night, we spotted dozens of shadow demons. Tonight, it could be hundreds. We’re being overtaken, and there’s not a damn thing we can do about it.”
Jess turned to Regent. His face was pale but determined. “Reej? Maybe I can start going through the archives with you? We need that information.”
“No, I’m sorry. That’s not possible. I’m working in a closed section of files. You’d have to have a pass to get inside, and that’s not going to happen.”
Since when did a pass stop her?
He gave a quick shake of his head, telegraphing a message—it wasn’t safe for her. “Okay. Britt and I will continue using our own methods,” she said.
“Good luck with that,” Veronique said. “We’ve tried everything, and nothing has worked. All we’ve managed to do is get good citizens of Paris killed. I urge you not to harm anyone else.”
“Sampson, did you learn anything when you autopsied the homeless man?” Jess asked.
“Hold on, what are you talking about?” Veronique asked angrily. “You can’t just take people off our streets and autopsy them.”
“He was a homeless man killed by a demon,” she said. “We intend to return him to your own forensic pathologist as soon as we can,” Jess said. “If you recall from your visit to New York, Sampson is a well-respected pathologist working with the NYPD. Our first objective is to make sure the man is truly dead and can’t come back at the demon’s will.”
“That is not acceptable. You must return him now.”
Jess frowned at Veronique. “Do you have specialists who can verify that he won’t come back as demon spawn?”
Veronique dropped into a chair, looking as if she’d been punched in the gut. “No. Nor had we considered such a thing. Is it really possible?” she asked.
Sampson chewed his lip. “Maybe. I’ll keep the corpse for a few more nights, just to make sure it doesn’t happen.”
“I’m sorry, Jess,” she said. “I shouldn’t have second-guessed you.”
Morana rolled her eyes.
“Morana?” Jess asked. “Do you have anything to report?”
Morana’s eyes narrowed slightly at Jess before she masked her irritation. “Only that the vampires are not happy that the streets are being overtaken by the possessed. Overall, it won’t change their nocturnal habits that much. Even though most of them don’t really care—as long as demons don’t kill people, they can still be a food source—I’ve found a few who are willing to help.”
Regent gasped at her cold-blooded comment and let go of her hand.
Morana noticed. “But I’m sure more of them will see that we need to help, once word gets around. We can’t just sit by and watch our city be overrun by hell’s vermin.”
Jess hadn’t expected to get much help from the vamps. Especially since she had a feeling that Morana was feeding the vampires information she shouldn’t. Still, there was no way she’d convince Regent that Morana shouldn’t be at these meetings.
Veronique hung back at the end of the night’s session and pulled Jess aside. “I wanted to ask about the demon’s attack on you,” she said. “About your arms being slashed in the same manner as our murder victims.”
She nodded. “Yes?”
“Do you honestly believe the murderer might be a demon?”
Jess shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. Didn’t you say the murders started some time ago?”
She nodded.
“Were the demons spotted in the city at that time?”
“No. But that doesn’t mean they weren’t here,” Veronique said. “Maybe one demon was sent ahead of the others to scout the territory. If so, that might explain why the perp is a particularly sadistic killer.”
“I guess it’s a possibility. But, if that’s true, we’d have demons overtaking the city, as well as one serial killer demon who has a thing for slashing open women who’d visited LaCave.” Jess inhaled. “I wonder. . . . Why only women, and why LaCave?”
“If that’s true, and we do manage to catch the serial killer. . . . How do we incarcerate a demon?”
“If you ever do catch it, I believe Regent will be able to contact the right people with the resources you need.” Though, thinking about the possessed priests. . . . Maybe the church wasn’t as powerful as she’d hoped.
“Oh, right,” Veronique said.
“What kind of resources does the church have against demons, other than their usual attempts at exorcism, which I hear aren’t working?” Morana asked.
Her first instinct was to be impressed by Morana’s intel, until. . . . Hold on! How’d she know about the exorcists?
Regent chose that moment to cut in. “As I said earlier, according to my research, this has happened before. From what I’ve gathered, a missing script from the church archives was instrumental in fighting the demons off. We have to find it. If we do, we might be able to defeat the demons again.”
“I hope you’re right, Regent. Because right now, we’re in very deep trouble. We can’t stop them, or we’ll kill their innocent hosts,” Jess agreed.
Regent grabbed his hat and strode to the door. “I’m going back to the archives. Will you and Jess see me there, safely, Britt?”
“Certainly,” Britt said.
Jess nodded to him and said her good-byes to Veronique and Morana, who immediately left the apartment, going in opposite directions.
When she and Britt got outside with her brother, Jess said, “Regent, I know you believe Morana is our sister, but I don’t think she should be at our nightly sessions. She’s not like me. I don’t think she cares whether the demons take over the city or not.”
“You can’t really believe that,” Regent said. “I don’t think you’re being fair to her. Can’t you at least give her a chance?”
Jess rolled her eyes and caught Britt’s tight-lipped expression. He obviously agreed with her, but didn’t want to upset Regent. “Yes, I do believe it. But for you, brother, I will give her a chance.”
“When will Sampson have the VNA results?” Britt asked as they strode down the sidewalk.
Jess didn’t have a chance to answer when a shadow crossed the street a distance ahead of them, going straight at a young couple. It slid into the man so fast, they couldn’t help him.
“Jess, grab the girl and get her out of harm’s way,” Britt shouted, then dove at the man whose eyes were already glowing. The takeover had been fast and complete.
“What’s happening?” the woman wailed, trying to fight Jess off. “Let me go. Randolph? Are you all right?”
But Randolph was far from all right. He was drooling and cursing and trying to attack Britt.
“Sir, I’m hoping you’re in there and you can still hear me. We’re going to try to help you. We can’t extricate the demon or it will kill you,” he said. “Have faith and we’ll find a way.”
The demon laughed while Britt let Randolph go. He had no other option. “You’re all going to join us in hell!”
“Randolph,” the woman screamed. “Don’t leave me. What’s happening to him?”
Jess tried to calm her, but the woman fought her, attempting to run back to her lover. Jess and Regent held her as gently as they could. Finally, the fact that one of them was a priest seemed to make the woman less combative.
“Father, why are you letting him leave? He might hurt himself. Why are his eyes so red?” Her voice hitched.
Regent took her hand. “We have to believe that as long as we leave him alone for now, we’ll be able to get him back. He’s been possessed by a demon. If we attempt to help, the demon will kill him.”
“Oh no!” She turned and threw herself into Jess’s arms. Jess felt so out of her element, Britt looked sorry for her. She awkwardly tried to pat the woman’s back.
A taxi turned the corner and Britt stepped out and hailed it for her. “Go home and stay there until the city is safe,” he said. “Don’t let anyone in unless you’re sure they haven’t been compromised.”
She dove into the vehicle and didn’t look back.
Jess called Veronique to have someone come and round up Randolph before he hurt someone.
“I’ll send an officer right away, though where we’re going to put the man is another thing. Our cells are full of the afflicted.”
“Hang in there, Vee, we’ll find something.”
“I hope to God you’re right, Jess.” She hung up.
Regent and Britt tried to keep Randolph semi-calm. Thankfully, the van arrived within minutes, and he was taken away.
“Quick,” Regent said. “Get me to the archives. I’ll be meeting my committee there tonight. We have to hope someone has found something. We have a veritable army of priests looking for a solution.”
“Fingers crossed,” Jess said. “Let’s go.”
“Follow the river,” Britt said. “They dislike the water.”
By the time they dropped Regent off, she and Britt had spotted at least twenty citizens roaming the streets, snarling and swearing.
Now, as they stood in the middle of Pont Neuf, they watched more and more people joining the ranks of the demonic. What the hell were they going to do?
“The newspapers will be full of this tomorrow. It can’t be kept secret any longer,” Britt said.
“No. And it shouldn’t be. People need to stay inside.”
Britt leaned on a parapet and cast a worried look her way. “Do you really think anyone is safe? Even in their homes?”
Jess’s shoulders drooped. “No. I don’t imagine they are, especially if the demons enter as shadows. What about the churches? Notre Dame?”