Graves of Wrath

by Lina Gardiner

  She blew out a breath. The thought that came to her might be crazy, but there was the tiniest of hope. “What if there’s a blessed vehicle here that the church uses for dignitaries?”

  “Dignitaries? Like who?” Sampson asked.

  “A person who might visit the French Papal Palace when he’s in the neighborhood.”

  “How likely is that?” Britt said.

  “There’s only one way to find out,” Jess replied, grabbing his hand. They raced down the long corridor toward the church itself. Jess’s pain grew with each step, but she forced it out of her mind.

  The church brimmed with citizens and priests and a cardinal or two, she noted.

  “I’ll get someone to come down here,” Britt said and genuflected before striding down the aisle toward the massive altar. Jess would never manage to get that close.

  She inched backward to press against the main doors. She could step outside and still be protected for a short distance, but if she did that, she’d let the demons know something was up. They’d be suspicious.

  Sampson stayed close, providing moral support without touching her. He was such a good man. He was going to make his way through the demons to try and save a foreign city and people he didn’t even know. That’s how wonderful a man he was.

  Then came Britt, all broad shoulders and masculinity striding toward her, a set of keys dangling from his hand. She wanted to run to him and wrap her arms around him and never let go. Were they getting help again? What were the odds of having a blessed vehicle here? She had no idea, but it meant they might actually make it to the Eiffel Tower, a short distance from here.

  “Let’s go,” he said. “We don’t have time to spare.”

  “And the power problem when we get there?” Sampson asked.

  “I spoke to one of the priests,” Britt said. “He said the tower has its own backup generator power source in the bunker. All we need to do is get it up and running. That’s your job, Sampson.”

  “Geez, this is going to be a stretch. I hope I remember how to use the equipment.”

  Since the vehicle was outside the building, Britt managed to blast away the shadows with the powerful Latin words while they made their way to the security of the vehicle.

  It seemed the demons had learned from their earlier encounter. Knowing they’d be vaporized by Britt’s voice, they slithered away quickly before bursting into flames.

  “They’re too smart. They’ll be hard to beat,” she said, snapping her seatbelt in the front passenger seat.

  “We can’t think that way. Don’t forget, we’re not doing this alone. We have help,” Britt said.

  Sampson asked. “What are you talking about?”

  “I couldn’t explain it, even if I knew,” Britt said. “I’ll fill you in later.”

  “If there is a later,” Sampson muttered from the backseat, his hands nervously clutching the seat ahead of him.

  The vehicle started with one turn of the key. “Here we go,” Britt said, rolling down the street toward the Louvre, then on to the Eiffel Tower. Again, it was like being in a black void. Shadows covered everything around them, no doubt to disorient them. Even so, the blessed vehicle had the ability to clear a very small path ahead of them so they could see they were still on the road. And the river was visible as well, which meant they wouldn’t end up in there. Even though the moon was full tonight, its rays seemed to be absorbed by the hellish shadows that were trying to send them off course.

  After hitting about a dozen too many curbs, they arrived at the Eiffel Tower and parked directly underneath it, near a side-entrance.

  Even before Britt opened the vehicle’s door, he shouted the powerful Latin prayer, as they prepared to break into the tower.

  Shadows wormed their way up the parapets ahead of them, completely covering the steel girders, as high as they could see.

  “We have to be organized once we get inside. Jess, you protect Sampson and get him to the bunker to work on the power. I’m going to have to make my way to the top of the tower so I can spread the prayers across the city once everything is ready.”

  “But how can I protect him? The words don’t work for me.”

  Britt held his cell phone out to her. “When I was on the steps of the church, I recorded the prayers onto my voice memo while I shouted it out. It’s turned up as high as it’ll go. It should help but, Jess, the cell phone’s charge is down to half. I’m not sure how long it’ll last, so you’ll have to be fast. You and Sampson do your thing and get back to me so I can keep you safe.”

  He’d found a way to give them a fighting chance.

  “Sampson, you know what to do,” Britt said.

  “I hope so,” he said.

  “Since it’s a radio tower—” Britt said “—we should be able to hook into it somehow with a loudspeaker. And then with your radio expertise, we’ll make it as loud as we can.” He thought about it. “If we’re lucky, the radio waves will carry the prayers even farther. Maybe they won’t have to be physically heard for the radio waves to work.”

  Sampson looked slightly panicked.

  “And where will you find that kind of equipment? A loudspeaker might not be just lying around in the Eiffel Tower?” Jess said. And she didn’t even know if radio waves worked that way.

  “I’m hoping against hope that there’s a way. If we are getting outside help, there will be something.”

  WHEN HE PUT it that way, Jess instinctively knew he was right. “Okay. But how will I keep Sampson safe? I’m not immune to the shadows and neither is he. Even if I recite the Latin if we lose battery power, it doesn’t have the same effect as when you speak the words.”

  “You’ll find a way,” Britt said. “Will you do the honors?”

  It was easy to break in via a side-access door. Jess just kicked it in. Again, the shadows poured inside ahead of them. They squealed and faded back at Britt’s chanting, then filled in again behind them.

  Britt used a crowbar to jam the door shut behind them. It didn’t help. Shadows oozed through the cracks and followed them. They’d attack the first chance they got.

  Before Britt started to climb, Jess grabbed him by the collar and planted a quick kiss on his lower lip. His mouth quirked into a smile, but he kept chanting.

  “We’ll see you at the top, my love. Good luck,” she said, then turned on his cell phone. The chanting began, protecting them quite well as she and Sampson made their way down to the bunker.

  AFTER OVER SEVEN hundred steps, Britt stood near the apex of the Eiffel Tower, where he took one quick rest from chanting. Just a second, that’s all he dared. He’d been followed by the smoky black things from the underworld, just waiting for him to slip up. At least there was a small platform up here for him to stand on.

  He began chanting again. As luck would have it, he’d found something better than a loudspeaker on his way to the very top of the tower. He’d come across a microphone. Hopefully, that meant there’d be a place he could plug it into, to create the best loudspeaker ever. He knew it hadn’t been left there by accident, though. And he had the feeling that under normal circumstances, this wouldn’t work in a million years.

  When he stepped onto the platform, the wind blew hard enough to steal his voice away for a second. Added to that, his prayers had lessened in volume, allowing the shadows to expand to the edges of the tower, slithering and sliding toward him before he found an audio jack in a black box connected to the mainframe of the structure. He plugged in and prayed Sampson had hooked up the proper elements. He needed sound now, before the demons drowned him out permanently.

  He started reciting the prayer into the mic. Nothing. It didn’t work. He continued chanting, praying, keeping the shadow demons at bay. They were flowing up the stairs and up the sides of the girders, building up on the platform all around him.

 
Suddenly it happened. His voice rang out with such strength and amplitude, it was hard on his own ears. He continued chanting the prayer as clearly as possible, until the words took on a strength and cadence of their own.

  The wind grew, whipping at him as if claws were trying to drag him off the tower.

  He clung to the metal structure with all of his strength. From up here, the city looked like a war zone. Fires burned randomly below. At least the citizens who weren’t already possessed were safe in the churches. That gave him the impetus to keep going, to keep shouting out the prayers for their salvation.

  LUCKILY, SAMPSON had found a panel where he’d managed to jerry-rig something so that Britt would have temporary power to the mike. But now he needed more juice to give Britt the amount of amplification necessary to blast the demons out of the city. He still needed to get into the equipment room to make some modifications—the sooner the better. Jess wondered how Sampson was handling the spirit-draining consequences of the demons trailing them. So far, he seemed okay.

  “First, we’ve got to find the generator room,” he said.

  Meanwhile, Britt’s voice chanted the words through the phone as they found another locked door in the bunker, again easily opened by Jess’s vampire strength. “This is it,” she said, holding the door open for Sampson to enter.

  Sampson noticed something in the corner and went for it. Unfortunately, he forgot about staying within range of the words.

  Jess dived after him, grabbing his sleeve. “Hold on,” she said, “We have to maintain a fairly close distance to the phone. Don’t wander too far, or you’ll be toast.”

  Sampson picked up some sort of prying tool and smiled at Jess. “We might need this, though.”

  She shook her head. “Stick with me from now on.”

  They entered the room that was marked electrical. It hummed with energy, but from the demons, not from any power source.

  “Even if we get the generator going, what’s going to stop the demons from shutting it down?”

  Jess hiked the cell phone volume to full. “We have to make this work. At least long enough for Britt to do what he has to do.”

  “I’ll do my best, Jess. I’m glad to see this old generator is similar to some of the ones I worked on in my youth. How lucky is that?”

  Yeah, lucky. . . .

  Sampson found a large gas can and filled up the generator then turned it on, choked it, and pulled a cord until it rumbled to life. “Open the door, Jess. We need some cross-ventilation since the air system isn’t working,” he said, then shut the choke off and crossed himself. She’d never known Sampson to be overtly religious, so his motions surprised her.

  “And look, the old radio system is right there,” he said, pointing. “It won’t take me long to get that hooked up, as long as there’s no break in the old wires on the way to the top.” He worked for a few minutes more, following wires from one place to the next.

  “We have to hurry. Do you think you can do this, Sampson?” Jess asked.

  “It’s been a long time since I worked on radios,” he said. “But, the basics are still with me. It’s a long distance from here to the top, though. I’m not sure we can we do this without the demons shutting it down.”

  “We have to.”

  Jess had an idea. She quickly sent Britt’s voice memo to her own cell phone. She turned it on and set it on the generator. Her cell phone was fully charged, so it might keep the demons away for a while longer.

  “Right now, I’m linking an amplifier, I hope,” he said.

  Jess checked her cell phone. “Hurry. I’m not sure how long the cell phone will last, running non-stop.”

  He clicked on several switches and ran a hand over his glistening forehead. “I think I’ve done something, but who knows for sure? If someone is helping us . . .” Sampson said, looking skyward “. . . now’s the time to make this thing work.”

  Jess closed her eyes. It had to work. They couldn’t end this way. Humanity needed help.

  Suddenly, they heard Britt’s voice booming from above. The amplifier was on, in full force, and Britt’s words were spreading out to the farthest reaches of the city.

  “You’ve done it!”

  Sampson shook his head. “I’ve made at attempt that seemed highly unlikely. The fact that it did work is a miracle.”

  “Don’t forget, Britt is one of the Fallen. He might not realize his abilities, but he’s able to do amazing things all by himself. If someone else is helping, even better.”

  Sampson nodded and glanced at the cell phone. “We have to leave that here if we want the generator to keep going.”

  “I know.”

  “Are we staying here?” he asked.

  “You are. Britt is going to need some help on the tower. If nothing else, I’ll give him moral support.”

  Sampson looked panicked for a second, before regaining his composure. He never questioned Jess. Maybe it was because she was his employer or because he was her friend and trusted her judgment enough to let her go.

  She touched his hand. “Thank you for everything, Sampson. You’ve always been my rock. If I don’t make it, keep going with your good work. Help the NYPD, and keep up your research on vampires.”

  “Jess, you will make it.”

  “I’m going to try.”

  She took a deep breath, even though she didn’t theoretically need to. She started reciting the prayer and headed for the stairs. She’d been listening to it long enough to at least remember the words, even though she couldn’t give them the same impact Britt could.

  Shadows clawed at her feet, but with the prayers, they couldn’t quite damage her. She climbed the tower at top vampire speed, and when she neared the highest point, she reveled at the sight of John Brittain standing there, all muscle and light, calling out across the city. Suddenly the demons around her started screaming, experiencing spontaneous combustion in reaction to his voice.

  “It’s working, Britt,” she shouted. “Keep going.”

  Their eyes met and his voice grew stronger while her fingers linked with his. Sporadic gusts of wind blew at them, but they held onto each other.

  Shadows tried to fill in around them, but they burst into flames and blew off in the wind.

  Chapter Twenty

  SEEING JESS WAS all he needed to replenish his dwindling energy. She always boosted him. With her by his side, how could they lose? Even from way up here, he could see the shadows disappearing from the streets. Their vile screams and moans had all but faded from his consciousness. It was as if they’d been in his head and now they were nearly gone.

  Jess smiled at him. Wind whipped her hair around her face and she looked as if she belonged at the top of the nine hundred and eighty foot tower. Her beauty always stunned him.

  “Keep going. They’re nearly gone,” she shouted. “We’re winning.”

  From the corner of his eye, he saw a bird. No, it was larger than a regular bird. It had to be an eagle or a hawk swooping down on them. And it was aiming for Jess. It wasn’t until he realized the thing was a new breed of shadow demon—one that could fly—that Britt feared for her safety.

  The thing swooped, its wings making a terrible flapping sound while it dove straight at her. Was this the last vestige of the shadows? Had they formed together to make a stronger beast in a desperate attempt to win the battle?

  It hit her with such impact, the whole tower swayed.

  He held her hand tight and tried to pull her closer to him, while shouting the prayer at the flying beast.

  Only, suddenly, her hand became slippery. He could no longer maintain his grip. Either that, or Jess had deliberately let go, afraid the next hit would take them both out.

  The flying creature attacked again, knocking Jess to the far side of the platform and out of his reach.


  “Stop, you fucking bastard!” he shouted, instantly forgetting to chant.

  The newly formed beast swooped around the tower, empowered by Britt’s break in his prayer. Its evil eyes and wicked mouth smiled at him. “Then you’d better stop right now. If you continue to kill us, I will knock her off. She’s an evil bitch anyway. Why do you care about her? You, who murder vampires, but think you’re good enough to be one of the Fallen.”

  “Who are you?” Britt demanded. He’d have power over a demon if he knew its name. His instincts told him that. His angelic DNA burned to control the demon and send him back to hell.

  “We are many. Our names cannot be used against us.”

  Britt started shouting the prayer again, while, at the same time, reaching for Jess with one hand while holding onto the center spire of the tower with the other. But as if the beast could control the wind, it suddenly blew so hard, he could barely see.

  One thing he did know. Jess was too far away, and he couldn’t get his feet to move.

  Jess turned to face the edge and leaned precariously over to look at the ground far below. One quick burst of air and she’d be gone forever. What could he do? Had she been possessed?

  He looked down through the girders of the tower. As far as he could tell, there were no other shadows below. He’d killed the majority of them through the radio waves, maybe almost all of them. But this flying beast had some sort of immunity against the prayer.

  He now sensed the absence of the other shadows in the city. They were all gone except for this last flying group of shadows. Could it stop him from succeeding?

  Britt choked up. This big bastard was the last demon standing. Instinctively, Britt knew if this one survived, it would resurrect the others again. All of their efforts would be lost and Jess would be possessed, or worse. What could he do?

  The demon took hold of Jess, twisting her features until she looked as if she’d become someone else.

  “If I make her jump, I’ll be sure her head is cut off on the way down. She won’t be able to come back, and I’ll live. You’ll have failed her, and you won’t be able to kill me.” The demon laughed and landed on the platform next to her, then slid a razor-sharp talon up Jess’s thigh, right through her leather pants. Her flesh opened up, and he could see the veins and tissue inside. The demon mimicked Jess crying for help.