by Tara Brown
I shake my head, "No but Wyatt can track me so you better bring him out so we can be on our way? We'll meet you in the garden."
She nods and leaves. We walk to the garden and I text Constantine.
The stone bench is cold. It's December and the weather is starting to turn. It stays like fall until almost Christmas and then it gets cold and snowy. The weather here is like a switch activates it.
The bench feels cold through my clothes. The snow is coming.
The door opens and the chubby pleasant looking priest exits the church. He looks less pleasant.
"You came back? I am surprised considering you know which side I am on."
I grin, "Well father I'm hoping I can convince you to at least try to see things my way."
He shakes his head, "No. Your friend is a Sin Eater. Without her the world becomes worse than it is now. Famine, War, Pestilence, and Decay. The revelations can start if the Sin Eater isn’t killed with the sin of the world in her."
I frown, "Revelations?"
He nods, "Lucifer will take over the world until the Sin Eater can be born again and raised to try again. If he takes over, the chaos we have lived with becomes much worse. I am sorry my child but your friend must die."
I look at Mona and shake my head, "Not if we kill the devils and make them take the sin."
He shakes his head, "Band-Aid situation. The only way is to kill Lucifer and the devils and Lillith. That isn’t going to happen. Lucifer doesn’t just die because you get lucky once and shoot him. His head must be separated from his body, same as Lillith. The devil's is the same. You are two little girls against all seven of them. Have you ever cut a head off? It's not eas…." Arms reach down from the overhanging roof and snatch him into the air. His screams replace his words.
We jump back. I laugh nervously at Mona, who is white as a sheet. "Well, that was creepy."
She holds her hand to her chest, "Constantine gets points for effort and creativity. I think I peed my pants. That scared the shit out of me."
I look back at the church, "We need to tell them it's me and not you. They're going to go all extremist religious nuts and kill you. It's better if they try to kill me. I don’t die as easily as you would. You're feeble."
"No, this is good. They have no idea what's what. Let's go meet Constantine."
Michelle doesn’t say goodbye.
"She just sent a text saying she is going to be ready to leave soon. She wants us to come before Christmas and get her." Mona looks at her phone.
I nod, "I get that she doesn’t want to be attached to the disappearance of the father. Honestly, I don’t imagine he's coming back. But she could have at least said goodbye."
Mona laughs.
The priest isn’t coming back. I plan on eating him unless Constantine beats me to it.
We drive back to Constantine's house. The driveway and view of the house is painful.
I remember pulling up to our home the first time, as man and wife. We were in a carriage. He made me cover my eyes. The house was stunning. I loved the proximity to the sea. I could smell it on the wind. I loved the feel of his fingers on my face and his kisses in my neck.
The house looks different now. It's modern and beautiful. I don’t know where our house went and why he built this one instead.
I need to see the house that's here along with the man. Not the house I loved and the man I adored, more than anything in the world. Neither of them exists in the real world.
I park in the round driveway and when we walk up to the door this time I don’t knock. I walk in and blow past the maid, "Where is he?"
"The study. This way." She looks distraught.
She walks us to a large dark door. We enter and I instantly feel my head swoon. The room is exactly as I recall it. Or is it the same room? Confusion sends me spinning.
I look around at everything and blush. The same old mahogany desk and the shelves of books. Hundreds of years old. The hand painted globe. The hand drawn map of the new world, that's framed in glass and hangs over his desk. The windows are large and bright, but he has the blinds turned to dim the light.
The priest is tied in a leather chair on the corner. One I don’t recall. It looks new.
Constantine isn’t in the room.
I turn and see smoke moving like fog from another doorway. He materializes and Mona jumps. I've seen it before. He smiles at me, like I am the only person in the whole world. He sees me and his face is changed. My heart skips beats and then races. I see the corners of his mouth turn up. He can hear my heartbeat. He knows his effect on me.
He's commanding as always. He looks at the priest, "You want to kill her do you?" He points to me.
The priest frowns and shakes his head, "No the Sin Eater." His eyes dart to Mona.
Constantine looks confused. He says nothing. He knows better.
"Tell us how to find Lillith. No more playing around Padre."
Constantine offers the two chairs against the massive wall of books. My legs are shaking. The room smells exactly as it would have in his old office. My memory is playing tricks on me.
I sit. Mona watches us all intently.
Constantine sits in his huge leather chair, behind the old desk he has ravished me on dozens of times. I bloody well remember that clearly.
I can't focus on the father or Mona. I can recall the feel of his fingers sliding up my skirts, and the way he felt between my legs. I squeeze my thighs together.
Constantine is grinning, he's not even fighting it. He glances at me and shakes his head disapprovingly. He knows what I'm thinking. He can sense my arousal. He brought us here on purpose. He has dozens of rooms and yet he chose the one that would make me remember.
I can play that game too. I remove my sweater and hold it in my lap. I'm in a thin pale pink tank top, no bra. The tank has the built in one. It's spaghetti strap and nearly sheer. "My sweater is inside out." I smile.
The priest swallows hard. He works very hard at not paying attention to all my flesh. I raise an eyebrow at Constantine, who has frozen. He is watching my pulse and my neck. It's his favorite.
Mona, who is oblivious to my tank top, leans into the priest and sneers at him. "You need to help us. We will end the hell on earth if we get rid of Lucifer for good. Or we just say frig it and let Lucifer take over."
I glance at Constantine, ignoring the laughing priest, and finger the neck of my tank. I watch his eyes. I tug at my shirt slowly, revealing almost all of my cleavage. I bend forward and pretend to tie my laces on my boots. "My boot's untied too. I'm a mess."
I smolder my eyes at him. He knows I'm begging for him to rip my clothes from my body. I make sure he notices the way I lick my lips and bite the bottom one.
I smirk when his fingernails cut into his desk. I pull my sweater back on.
Mona gives me a weird look.
Constantine takes a breath and glances down at his desk. He makes a face and cusses quietly. He has treasured the desk for hundreds of years. It was virtually unmarked, until now.
I look over at the priest and snarl, "Father spare us the nonsense and tell us where to look."
The father watches Constantine, "What are you my son?"
Constantine smiles his fangs at him, "Your worst nightmare. Let's chat shall we." His fangs almost make me moan. The feeling of them dragging down my skin and biting in, rolls through my mind.
He walks to the father and squats between his legs. He looks into his eyes, "Where is Lillith?"
The priest fights it but relents after a few moments of attempting to close his eyes, "Ireland. The Fae keep her safe."
"How do we get to her?"
He smiles, "You can't. You are unholy. Only a person with a pure heart can find the Fae."
I glance at him, "How did this happen? How did my father and mother come to this?"
He presses his lips together and looks down. Constantine touches his cheeks and brings his focus back. "Answer the questions she asks you father."
His mout
h opens and he speaks like he is in a trance. "Our Father cursed them for their betrayal of his love. They made their love more important than his. When they chose to fall and touch the earth, they tainted it with a stain. An evil made from their defiance of God. They had a child and lived happily. The child grew sickly in her late teens. They panicked and came to God for help. He offered them redemption. He said that if they wanted so badly to stay upon the earth he would forgive them, if they sacrificed their only child. She could carry the sin they created by defying God and take it with her. Lillith disagreed. She ran with the child and refused. The child grew sicker. Lucifer saw this as an opportunity. He went after Lillith and abducted the girl. He was certain they could conceive again. This child was nothing to him, in comparison to his love for Lillith. He took the child and sacrificed her on her twenty-first birthday. Lillith was heartbroken. She was devastated. He found her and convinced her that they could try again. They did. They conceived once more. The child remembered them. She remembered the life she had had with them. Again they had given birth to the Sin Eater. Lillith was crushed. She refused to love the child. She ran from Lucifer again and entered the sacred garden of the Fae. The earth's people. Not God's creations, but Mother Earth's creations. Lucifer again sacrificed the child." He takes a deep breath and continues with hollow eyes and detachment in his voice. "God created Adam and Eve. Lillith had learned tricks from the Fae. Shape shifting was one of the things she learned. In anger and madness, she snuck into the Garden of Eden and disguised herself as a snake. She tempted Eve with the poisoned apple. Eve ate and cursed God's creations. God was furious. The evil stain became too great for one girl to collect. He allowed five angels to fall and become the sin gatherers, who would feed the evil they collected to the Sin Eater. They could live upon the earth as immortals, so long as they gathered the sin."
"Wait, so Lillith birthed me twice. But then in the dark ages and the age of enlightenment I was born as well?" I don’t even think about the fact he thinks Mona is the Sin Eater.
"A virgin birthed you the other times. Lillith refused to allow Lucifer near her. She refused to allow him to create another Sin Eater. God put the baby in the belly of the virgins. You have been born four times."
"You lied to me."
He nods. "I did. I didn’t want you to think this was your last chance as a human. We need you to do the final cleansing of the earth. Not desperately scrambling to save yourself. You're a martyr child. Don’t be so selfish."
"Why did God create his son to die for our sins, if he was using me the entire time?" I am angry, it's deep and desperate. I am running out of time.
He shakes his head. His lips press together. He's fighting telling us. His eyes flutter and he passes out.
Constantine looks back at me and frowns, "Well that was interesting. Much more than we got out of the damned witches."
I sigh. My palms are sweating and I'm exhausted. I need to feed.
Mona looks deep in thought, "So this is the last time you can be born? What does that mean?"
Constantine looks dismally at me, "It means we kill them or she dies forever."
"Can you make her a vampire?"
He smiles bitterly, "We tried that last time. Didn’t we love?"
It flashes into my brain. The pain and agony was intense. My brain refuses to let me see it all. "I remember throwing up blood."
He winces, "So much blood. I didn't know people held so much." He stands, "What would you like me to do with him?"
I watch the sleeping priest. "I want that answer and then I want to eat him."
He nods, "I was afraid you would say that. Even after you depleted my resources here. I will say though, he probably doesn’t have many sins. You'll be even hungrier after you eat him. Whereas I know he has loads of blood in that chubby body. I will be sated. I think we'll have to wrestle for this one." He walks from the room and I sit back.
"You're going to kill him? He's a priest." Mona looks sick.
I nod. I don’t want to explain to her that I am seconds away from eating her.
She gets up and leaves.
She doesn’t want to face the fact I am the monster everyone keeps telling her that I am.
I look up at the ceiling. My other lives are coming back. I remember things. I remember my mother. I remember my father walking me up a hill. He held my hand and spoke to me of love and responsibility. I never saw the flash of steal or felt a thing. He ensured I went peacefully but that changes nothing. He has cut my head off twice. A shiver runs up my spine. I see his face. I look a lot like him.
The priest rolls his head and mutters. His face drains of color. He struggles to lift his head. His lips seem fat and thick.
"My child." He mutters.
I lean in. His hands latch around my throat, "MY CHILD!" His eyes are completely black. He is spitting when he speaks. "You must honor the agreement. You must. YOU MUST!" He screams in my face. I can't breathe. I try to claw at his hands but the strength in them is unnatural.
He is leaning in breathing his hot breath on my face. "YOU MUST HONOR THE AGREEMENT! SOUL FOR SOUL!"
My eyes are getting dark from the lack of oxygen. I panic and push at him.
I feel something sharp grab at my arm and suddenly the room spins. I land against something hard. Blackness fills my eyes. I hear hissing. The last thing I see is Constantine consuming the priest.
Chapter Twenty-Two
I am surrounded by warmth. It’s a familiar feeling. I pull the arms around me tighter. I moan a little and wiggle into the embrace. I hear a chuckle and look up. Constantine is across the small dark room, "You wish it were me do you?"
I frown and look behind me. A face I do not know lies next to me. His expression is slack.
"Murdered his mother and her cat. Stole her car and crashed it. Took his clothes off and ran down the road naked. Got taken to a mental hospital. Never got tried for the death of his mother. I really don’t feel like it's fair, you know. He should pay for the death of the cat at the very least. Anyway he received a clean bill of health two weeks ago. Ten years of intense therapy has determined he is sound as a pound."
I squirm away from him. "Why is he next to me?" I look around. I am in a cell. "Why am I in a cell?"
His eyes gleam, "You let yourself get hungry my love. That has always a problem with you. I couldn’t let you kill Mona."
Jealousy pangs flutter inside of me. I recall the way they looked at each other when they met. The way he called her pure. It was an insult directed at me.
"Yes, god forbid anything happens to the love of your life at the hands of another. I know how you like to be the one to ruin them."
He is beside me in a flash. His face is so close, his words are a part of my breath. "I don’t want you to feel guilty for killing her. It would ruin you. Unlike you I've only had one life, one love." His black eyes scare me for the seconds they remain. Then he is gone and I am full of sadness again.
I look back at the young man on the crappy little bed. He is handsome. I reach a finger and trail it along his arm. He is sweet. Probably the sweetest thing I've tasted since the madness in the stalls here last time. My mouth waters when I taste the evil lurking inside of him. His skin is warm and soft. I knead him like a cat and let the suck start. I'm starving. I pull hard and fast. He screams as I pull it from him roughly.
I sigh and shudder. Sweat drips along my face. I squeeze my thighs together and try to catch my breath.
He murdered another woman last week. "So much for therapy." I mutter to myself.
I stand and press on the cell door. It's stuck. I push harder but it's locked. I look at the dead kid on the bed and slump against the bars.
"Constantine, please." I call out. "Let me out. I'm sorry I said that. You know how sometimes I talk out of hunger." It too has always been a problem.
He doesn’t come. I watch the shadows move along the floor of the only window down here. The shadow moves with the passing hours. Panic starts to build inside of me. The d
ead kid stinks. His skin is sweating. He's making a wet mark on the bed. I am in the far corner, plotting my escape. The worst scenario I can imagine is playing around in my mind.
'He has betrayed us again.'
I feel sick at the thought of it.
I fall asleep against the bars. The dead take me.
When I wake Mona is hugging me and sobbing. I wake calmly as always but start to panic.
"Mona, what's wrong?"
She is holding me and crying, "I couldn’t find you. He wouldn’t show me where you were. He said you needed time to cool off. You were a danger to me."
"Did he touch you?"
She shakes her head, "No. No of course not. He asked me a million questions about you and about Wyatt and about school."
"What did you tell him?"
She shakes her head, "I'm not sure."
I put my face in my hands, "Fuck." He's made her tell him everything about me. He's jealous on a bad day. Now he knows I've had sex with other men. Lots of other men.
I look around me. She has dragged me from the cell. The bars are open. I look back at the open door. "There's a dead guy in there. Don’t go in there."
She cries harder, "I know. I know I saw him. He stinks."
I can smell him on me. I grimace, "I need a shower. I'm gonna kill Constantine."
She looks horrified.
I get up off the floor and try to stretch my aching body. I climb the stairs and notice the kinks everywhere.
"Son of a bitch. How long was I in there?"
She heaves behind me, trying to get a grip on her tears, "Three days. He's been acting crazed. I didn’t know what to do. He wouldn’t let me leave and he wouldn’t let me call anyone. I felt like Jonathan Harker."
I laugh wearily. At least I'm not the only one who speaks in movie talk.
She leads me to our room. I don’t smell him in the house. Our room has a huge walk-in shower. It has showerheads pointing all around. It's like standing out in the rain. Rayne in the rain.
"Try to relax." She whispers and leaves. The trauma of it all is starting to wear on her. Death is a hard thing to take for an innocent person.