by Ivy Sinclair
“I was kidnapped by a gargoyle,” she said.
I started. Gargoyles were rare, even in the demon world. They were nasty bastards for sure. I knew that from my interviews with the dead, not from any personal experience.
“You remember?”
I helped her sit up. She shook her head. “It was a memory, but I saw it in my dream. I don’t remember anything else.”
This new development worried me. After three years, Paige’s subconscious was surfacing more of her memories fast and furiously. Once relegated to her dreams, the fact that she was retaining them now in her waking state could only mean that they were closer to the surface. At any point, they could break through to her conscious mind. I had no idea what that would mean when they did. How much of the woman I knew would remain when that happened?
“What time is it?”
I glanced at my watch. “It’s just after eight. I think that we should try talking to Alice one more time, and then we should be on our way.”
“What about Benjamin?”
I didn’t care what happened to Benjamin, but I had to accept that Paige did. It was more than a little annoying. “He’s in good hands with Alice. Plus, he’d want us to continue on. He wants you to be safe as much as I do.”
Paige chewed on her lower lip, clearly undecided on the matter. “I think we need to go back to Calamata Island.”
That wasn’t what I expected her to say at all. “Why? That place is crawling with demons. It isn’t a demon-free zone anymore.”
“In my dream, or memory, I was trying to get there. This thing that Alice said I was looking for when I sought her out. I think it’s hidden there. At least, I thought it was three years ago.”
I rocked back on my heels. “Are you sure about that? You’ve admitted that you’re not sure if these are your memories or not. It seems like walking back into that demon nest would be the worst thing we can do.”
“If Benjamin is awake, I’ll ask him about it,” Paige said. “Of anyone, he’d be the one who would be able to help us.”
“You don’t want to be indebted to an angel,” I said darkly. “Movies depict angels as loveable, benevolent guys that just want to help out mankind, but it’s far from the actual truth. They are as manipulative and deceptive as the demons. They just think their intentions are pure.”
“I don’t think I have a choice, Riley.” Paige pushed up to her feet, and I stood with her. She looked tired as if she hadn’t slept at all. “I said I wanted answers. I can’t be upset if those answers aren’t exactly what I wanted. At least I’ll know the truth and where I stand.”
She ducked around me and headed for the door. I had no choice but to follow her. My mind swirled with tumultuous thoughts and emotions. It was because of that I missed any potential warning signs.
I heard Paige’s gasp as soon as she crossed the threshold, and she disappeared from view before I could grab her to pull her back inside. Luckily my kit was already open, and I pulled out the remaining Plythen knives that were inside. Then I rushed across the threshold, scared shitless of what I would find.
At eight o’clock in the morning, the sanctuary should have been lit up in a dazzling array of colors and textures from the long stain glass windows that lined both walls all the way to the back. Instead, the large room was steeped in shadows. Paige stood directly in front of me, and I grabbed her elbow to stop her from traversing further into the room.
“Up here, kids.” The words were said with a sarcastic southern lilt. One that haunted my dreams. My eyes were drawn upward toward the choir loft. Then my mind tried to wrap itself around what I saw there because, at first, I clung to the belief that it wasn’t possible.
He looked different, but that was because he had changed his vessel. The smirk on his face was identical to one that I saw in my mind every time I closed my eyes and allowed myself to think about that night when my mother and sister were ripped away from me. It was Bruno Proctor here in the flesh.
I’d tried tracking him all over the world for the last five years. I had been prepared to die in an effort to bring him down and claim revenge for the lives of my family. As much as I wanted to race across the church and launch myself into the choir loft to take him down, I had a reason to be cautious now. Paige and her safety had to come first.
“Mr. Stone, I’d like to say that it is a pleasure to see you again, but I think we both know that I’d be lying. I am fairly certain that I told you the next time you interfered in my business I was going to take your head.”
I allowed myself a grim smile at his arrogance. I wasn’t sure how he had managed to break through the holy perimeter offered by a spiritual place of God, but at the moment I didn’t care. What he had probably failed to take into consideration was that the church had been built in the early turn of the century. That was during the time when graveyards frequently occupied as much of the grounds as the church buildings themselves. As soon as I saw him, I had reached out and sent the call that would bring my own form of an army to our aid.
Two shadows detached from the corners of the rafters above the loft and floated down on either side of Proctor.
“Gargoyles,” Paige uttered her first words since leaving the pastor’s office. “Do you see them?”
“I do,” I said.
“Of course, he does Ms. Matthews. Of course, he does. I have been waiting quite a long time for us to get reacquainted. Our last encounter was so…enlightening.”
I pushed Paige behind me and brought up both of my arms. The steel knives in my hands glinted in a stray beam of light that allowed me to see into the room. “You’re not getting any closer to her.”
Proctor threw back his head and laughed even as he clapped his hands together. “I do enjoy your spirit, Mr. Stone, although it will do you about as much good as it did you the last time we met. The only difference is this time you will die.”
“Like hell,” I growled.
“If you insist.” Proctor raised his hands, and it was as if all hell broke loose. Demons jumped up from hiding places under the pews and streamed into the aisle. Others simply started to crawl over the pews toward us. I lost count at ten. I heard Paige’s scream, but at that moment, help arrived in the form of a dozen former parishioners of St. Joseph’s.
The demons hesitated as the small horde of reanimated corpses encircled us. “Get back in the room, Paige!” I stepped backwards pushing her back toward the open doorway. I needed her safe and out of the way in order to do what I needed to do, which was fight with every last bit of energy I had.
I had to keep my mind clear in order to push out the mystical force required to keep the corpses fighting for me. Even then, I knew that I was on the shit end of the stick. Despite being inside human hosts, the demons had increased speed and strength to aid them. My reluctant comrades would not have the same benefit. So my only hope was that they’d give me enough latitude to reach my main objective: Proctor.
My reflexes took over. Duck. Thrust. Slash. Plunge. Block out the screams of the demon’s host as the demon’s essence was released into the ether. Then I did something that I usually didn’t attempt because it required more energy than I was willing to expend. Of those demons that my troops took down, I trapped the demon’s soul inside and bent it to my will just like those that surrounded me.
The demons fought me tooth and nail, and I felt the sweat break out on my brow. The balance between physical and mental effort was wearing on me already, but I couldn’t stop to think about it or to try to find a way to recharge. If I wavered for one moment, then I’d lose them all.
“I never lack for entertainment when I watch you, Necromancer.” Proctor’s words invaded my consciousness.
I steeled my thoughts and tried to push him out. Telepathy was never my preferred mode of communication, and at the moment I already had too many voices in my head. But he knew that. He was trying to distract me, which meant he thought there was a chance I might turn the tide of the attack against him.
“Fuck you, Proctor!” I shouted out loud. “You think you’re dealing with some rank amateur? You aren’t the only one who has picked up a few tricks over the last few years.”
It was a complete gamble to do what I did then. I had counted on Proctor invading my mind. It’s what he had done to me to break my defenses down that night five years ago. So I spent the last several years practicing how to defend against it. Not only that, but how to leverage it to jump into my enemy’s head.
I pushed back with all my mental strength to expel him from my head, but not before I attached a tiny thread onto his invading tentacle. As he pulled it back to him, I went with it. Now my consciousness was split three ways, and I felt my energy reserves were quickly reaching their limits. Knowing that I wouldn’t have another chance, I welded my own tendril into a sharp point and sent it sailing straight into the core of Proctor’s consciousness.
I was rewarded by a shriek of pain. I let everything else fall away and transferred all of the energy I had into my mental knife. I was inside his mind, and my stomach rolled even as I felt the taste of blood in my mouth.
“Get him!”
My eyes lost focus then but not before I saw the gargoyles take flight from two different perspectives: mine on the ground and from the pair of eyes up in the choir loft. More flashes were coming through the connection now, and I knew that he was fighting back by trying to push across the bridge between us. We were locked in a mental war, and I would lose because I had left my flank open. With my re-animated troops gone, his remaining demons would be able to take me down before I would be able to overwhelm his mind.
That’s when I felt the brush of a hand on my shoulder.
“I have your back.”
I had never been so glad to hear the archangel’s voice.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN – PAIGE
Several times I tried to cross back out into the sanctuary to assist Riley, but something kept me barricaded inside. Tears streamed down my face even as I beat my hands against the invisible barrier. I watched Riley deftly use both his hands and his knives to slice his way across the large room.
Although he told me that he was Necromancer, I didn’t fully understand or appreciate what that meant until that moment. The dead danced and fought for him. Even as the demons beat them down, they continued to surge forward. They served no purpose other than to do Riley’s bidding. I watched in a combination of awe and horror.
Then those demons that had been cut down began their awkward and strange readjustment to life and turned on those that they had just fought beside against Riley. I understood what was happening. Riley was controlling them too.
I looked back up at the choir loft and saw that Proctor had his hands on the railing. He leaned over watching the chaos below with obvious glee on his face. Then his eyes rolled back in his head, and he grabbed the sides of his face and whirled around in pain. I heard his shriek, and it sent chills down my spine.
Then came the bloodcurdling command that Proctor sent out to his gargoyles. Riley stood alone as his circle of undead comrades collapsed around him. The demons left standing advanced toward him. I clawed at the barrier desperate to get out and do whatever I could to help him.
That was when Benjamin appeared from the corner of the room and strode across the floor. As he arrived at Riley’s side, his eyes flickered toward me. I realized then that the reason I had been unable to leave the sacristy was because of Benjamin. He placed a hand on Riley’s shoulder and whispered something in his ear.
The gargoyles soared high up into the rafters and then dove straight down at the men standing there. I felt a wild rush of terror and panic, and then I was through the door. I didn’t think. I simply brought my hands up and screamed at the top of my lungs.
“Be gone, demons! Mitto ego te ad infernum recta.”
Something ripped away from my core then, and streaks of lightning shot out of my fingers. When the streaks connected with the gargoyles, there were two brilliant eruptions of a blinding white light. Then it was as if the light sucked in on itself and was gone. The two gargoyles were gone as well.
It clicked then in my mind.
My name was Paige Matthews.
My name had always been Paige Matthews, at least in this lifetime.
I was twenty-two years old.
I was born to be the vessel for the Goddess Eva, and she was supposed to have taken control of my body on June 21, 2011, which was the summer solstice.
I lost my memories after being bludgeoned to the point of death and then dumped into the Pacific Ocean for ‘safe keeping’ by Bruno Proctor on June 15th, 2011.
Benjamin and Riley turned to me. There was a thin trail of blood from Riley’s nose running down his face. Both of their mouths hung open.
“I remember everything,” I said. I could barely process it all, but nonetheless, the probe of my memories told me they were all there.
“What did you just do, Paige?” Benjamin asked.
“She saved your sorry lives,” Proctor said snidely from the choir loft. “But have no fear, I’ll have better luck next time.”
That was when I smelled a rank stench that choked me and brought me back into my dreams. Sharp talons hooked into my shoulders. Even as my mouth opened to chant a defense spell, Proctor appeared directly in front of me. He blew a powder off the palm of his hand into my face.
The last thing I remembered was the cold embrace that haunted my dreams.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN – RILEY
I knelt in the wreckage of the church. Alice stood at the front near the high altar with her hands on her hips shaking her head.
“This is going to get me thrown out for sure this time,” she said.
“I’m sure that having an archangel vouch for you will keep you in the diocese’s good graces,” I said hollowly. I couldn’t believe that I had let Paige slip away from me. “You said that you put a safety barrier up to keep her inside the sacristy.” I directed my scathing comment at the man sitting calmly in the one remaining upright pew in the entire church.
“I did. Had I known that I was trying to cage a person of mystical descent though, I would have used something a bit stronger,” Benjamin said. He seemed unfazed by my anger, which pissed me off even more.
“She’s lived with you for the last three years, and it never hit your radar, not once, that she could be more than human?” I pressed on. Yelling at Benjamin for his lack of perception didn’t make me feel any better about my part in the whole mess, but it kept my mind from going to other places.
For a few short moments, I had occupied Bruno Proctor’s headspace. What I saw in there would make anyone’s toes curl. And now he had Paige. I hadn’t protected her at all.
“She’s still human, Riley,” Alice clucked. Of course, she came to the archangel’s defense. “Without her memories, there was nothing about her that would set her apart from anyone else in this world.”
“I would know her anywhere,” I said softly. Then I stood up. “We have to find her.”
“I will,” Benjamin said. “And this time, I’ll be better prepared for Proctor’s tricks. Let’s hope that he used them all up during his invasion of my island.”
“Paige said that she was originally on her way to Calamata when she was kidnapped the first time. She was looking for something that would help her keep the Goddess at bay. Any idea what that might be?”
I saw a flicker of something pass across Benjamin’s face, but it was gone before I could read it. “I have no idea,” he said. “Calamata had been a place of refuge for demons and angels alike for many years before I took up residence there. But I think it’s safe to say if there was some object of power there, I would know about it.”
I wasn’t going to press the issue. At least, not yet. “When do we leave?” I asked him. “I don’t want to let him get too much of a head start.”
“I will be leaving momentarily, but you won’t be coming with me,” Benjamin said as he stood. He turned to Alice. “Thank you for your care and h
ospitality, Sister Alice. It won’t be forgotten.”
Alice bowed her head. “Anytime.”
I stormed toward Benjamin, but he evaporated before my eyes even as my fingers swept into the space that the archangel had just occupied.
“Dammit!” I swore. I fell back to my knees. Without Benjamin’s help, I didn’t stand a chance of finding Paige. I felt a welling of panic and slight insanity in my chest.
“All is not lost as long as you have hope, Riley.”
“Save me the pep talk bullshit, Alice,” I choked. “I’m not in the mood.”
“Then perhaps this will help.”
I swung my head toward her. As I watched, she let a small gold locket fall out of her hand to swing in the air beneath her fist. “The first time that Paige came to see me, she stole one of my enchanted blades from my cabinet. In its place, she left this.”
I stood up and made my way to her. I put out my hand, and she dropped the locket into it. I pushed the halves open. Inside of it two faces, a man and a woman, smiled back at me.
“I believe these are Paige’s parents. This locket had great sentimental value to her, and I think she left it with me because she didn’t want it falling into the wrong hands. As you well know, we imbue parts of us onto the items that are precious to us. That can be used against us.”
I felt a spark of hope. “We can use this to find her.”
Alice’s face still held a shade of sadness. She reached out and touched my shoulder. “Yes. I just hope for your sake that when you do, she still wants to be found.”
To be continued...
While Paige fights for her soul, everything that you thought you knew about Riley’s past changes when a horrible secret is revealed.
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