As soon as the last word leaves my lips, Quinn lands beside us.
“Will the wooden cross work?” Kessley asks immediately, as if she’s afraid we’ll forget otherwise.
“Yes, but only if you dip it in holy water,” the angel answers.
He hands me a thick stick about half my height, with white flowers sprouting from the end. “This is the rod of Aaron. He used it to correct and guide his flock. It has divine power, but there is not much left of it. You can only use it once, and I am not sure for how long. But it will make the demons move wherever you want them to.”
Vicky holds out her hand and gently touches the wood. “I remember the stories. Is this the real thing?”
“Of course it is. Would I bring you a fake one that doesn’t work?”
Her cheeks go red. “No, you wouldn’t.”
He smiles. “I’ve got more.” He shows us a large bottle filled with glowing red liquid.
“What’s that?”
“Angel blood.”
I gulp. I don’t even want to think about how he got a hold of that much blood.
Sorrow falls over his face when he looks at the liquid. “At least these angels didn’t die in vain.” He presses the bottle into my hand. “Demons can’t handle angel blood very well. Use it wisely.”
I press the bottle against my chest. “I will. Thank you so much, Quinn. I owe you one.”
He tilts his head to the sky. “Don’t worry about that. You’ll pay me back your debt soon.”
“What does that mean?” I ask, but there’s nothing but air between me and my Shield. Quinn has gone back to Heaven.
I examine the rod and bottle in my hands. “Well, I guess we’re ready to rock and roll.”
Maël walks around the car and holds up the wooden cross she’s carved. Vicky takes the bottle of holy water from under my arm and trickles some of the contents onto the cross. A glow wraps all around it and makes the intricate carvings more visible. Maël created little crosses and stars with flames around them.
Taylar looks over her shoulder. “What do those stars mean?”
Maël’s finger follows the small lines on the cross. “These are anti-possession symbols. They will help us to drive the demons out of the nuns’ bodies.”
“How do you know them?”
She wipes some wood splinters from her dress. “My grandfather drew one for me once. I forgot about it, but while I was carving, it is as if my hand remembered the shape of it.”
A tear falls down her cheek, and D’Maeo wipes it away. “This is a good sign. Even our ancestors get through to us to help us in this battle.”
Maël rests her head against his, and that shows so much love and respect, from both sides, that I have to swallow a couple of tears myself.
I turn away from them and hand the rod and bottle to Vicky. “Can you hold on to this while I drive?”
She takes it but doesn’t move. “Shouldn’t we think of a way to use this blood one drop at a time instead of the whole bottle at once?”
I slap my forehead. “Right. Sorry, I was so excited that I overlooked that. Do you have any ideas?”
She holds out the rod to me with a wide grin. “I sure do.”
When I grab the stick, she digs into her endless pocket and pulls out a spray bottle. “I’ve got two of these. Put them in not too long ago. Thought I might need them to spray holy water. But this is even better.”
I could hug her, but I don’t want to risk her dropping the bottle of blood. So instead, I blow her a kiss with my free hand. “I love how well you always anticipate.”
Her grin widens, and she pours the blood into the first spray bottle. D’Maeo takes the full one from her, and she pulls out another, which fills up completely too.
The old ghost holds them both up. “We’ve got two great weapons here. But we shouldn’t assume this will do the job.”
“Right,” I agree. “It’s never as easy as it seems.”
Jeep snorts. “When did it ever seem easy?”
“Good point.” I nod at the spray bottles in D’Maeo’s hands. “Can you try them, please? I want to make sure they work.”
He sprays them both, and two small fountains of red come to life.
“Great, let’s go,” I say, and I get behind the wheel.
Jeep holds the rod for me while I drive back to the monastery.
I’m relieved to see that the darkness hasn’t spread more, even though the impenetrable gray clouds above the street seem more threatening than before.
I park Phoenix in the driveway of the first house, hidden behind a hedgerow.
I take in my small army and try to decide who gets which weapon. Someone needs to use the rod to try and keep the sisters in place while we perform the exorcism.
Eventually, I realize there is only one choice. “Vicky, are you willing to take the rod and use it on the nuns?”
It’s as if the request alone makes her glow from head to toe. “You think I can do that?”
“Not only that, I think you’re the most suitable person for the task. You already have the power to control people’s feelings, and you’re able to remain calm enough to use it under stressful circumstances."
She blushes. “I hope you’re right. But…” She glances at the ghost queen standing behind her. “I think Maël would be even better at it. She’s probably the calmest of us all.”
I smile. “True, but Maël can help you by slowing the nuns down in time.”
D’Maeo nods contently. “Sounds like a good plan.”
Jeep hands the rod to Vicky, who handles it as if it’s as fragile and valuable as an antique vase.
The old ghost holds up the spray bottles. “What about these two?”
“I think you and Taylar should take those. Jeep can resurrect the skeletons again, Kessley can multiply or change into something big in case we need extra strength to hold them back, Gisella is probably the only one who can actually take them out if anything goes wrong, and I need to perform the exorcism. We’ll all have our hands full.”
Taylar moves his shield to his back and exchanges it for a sword. “I like to have my hands full. I fight better with a weapon than without.”
“Great. So it’s settled then?”
After a unanimous ‘yes’, I walk to the end of the hedge and peer around it. “I think the coast is clear.”
We cross the street quickly and make our way to the monastery one garden at a time. I’d rather get there three minutes later than be seen. There’s probably a nun on the look-out.
“Maël,” I whisper, when there’s only one more house between us and the monastery. “Can you stop time for anyone outside the monastery or looking out of the window?”
The African queen pushes her cape down before the wind can lift it above her head. “No, I need to see my target.”
“I can provide some cover,” Gisella says, and she lifts her head to the sky. Some of the dark clouds above us are torn apart, and the pieces slowly descend, surrounding the church on all sides. I’m surprised at how natural it looks, as if it’s nothing more than a normal shift in the weather. The difference in the sky can’t even be seen with the amount of clouds that still hover above the street.
The werecat-witch stands up in full sight of the monastery. “We’re good to go.”
We follow her to the entrance that Sister Carol told us about. The garbage chute ends above a transportable steel container. It hasn’t been emptied for a while, by the looks of it, and the smell is so bad that I almost throw up.
“Do you think there’s a dead body in there?” I ask D’Maeo in a hushed tone.
He covers his nose with his free hand. “No, I think this is just the smell of rotting food.”
Taylar and Kessley roll the container aside quietly. The wheels squeak a bit, but not loud enough to be noticed inside. Or so I hope.
“I’ll go first,” Gisella says. She steps up under the chute, calls a couple of shad
ows to her, and they push her up through the steel tunnel. There’s another squeak when she opens the door at the top, followed by silence. A couple of seconds later, the shadows shoot out of the chute and wrap around me. I try to relax as they drag me toward the tunnel and pull me inside. It’s not that big, and I have to push my shoulders forward to squeeze through. The shadows go faster and faster, and I squeeze my eyes shut, expecting to collide with the door at the top. But at the last second, we slow down, and I’m eased through the opening. Gisella is waiting for me on the other side, with a smug expression on her face.
“Great job,” I whisper when the shadows put me down.
The corner of her lips twitches up, and she nods before directing the shadows into the chute again.
I take in the deserted kitchen, walk to the door and put my ear against it. There are no sounds coming from the other side, and for the first time, I’m starting to worry that the sisters are no longer here. What if they didn’t go back inside at all? What if they are tracking down Sister Carol or killing the locals?
I want to tell Gisella to wait, but then I hear a faint voice in the distance, low and threatening. It sounds like the nun in my premonition. Is she giving the others instructions?
Taylar arrives and joins me at the door. He listens for a while before asking the question that goes through my mind too. “What are they doing?”
“I think they’re working out their next step,” I whisper back. “They must be up to something, or they wouldn’t have possessed those nuns. And I don’t think they’ve given up on getting Sister Carol’s soul yet.”
He places his hand on the door, and his face turns dark. “They have infected the whole building.”
He tilts his head unnaturally far, and a deep frown appears in his forehead.
I take a step back, dread filling up my chest. “Taylar, are you okay?”
His eyes stare past me, a shade darker than usual. “Fine,” he says, but it comes out as a low growl.
Ignoring the voice in my head that tells me to get away from him, I reach out and grab him by the shoulders. “Are you turning evil again? Fight it, Taylar! We need you on our side.”
I squeeze his shoulders hard when he doesn’t respond. “Please!”
His gaze shifts to me. His frown deepens, and I feel him stiffening under my touch. Then he shakes his head fervently, and his face returns to its normal pale see-through state.
I smile at him. “Glad to have you back.” I scratch my head in thought. “Maybe you should stay outside?”
His mouth forms a determined line. “No, I can handle it. Don’t worry about me.”
I nod slowly, trying to decide if it’s worth the risk. But we’re short-handed already, so I guess we don’t have much choice. “Okay, but be careful. If something feels wrong, tell me.”
He chuckles. “Really? Something feels wrong all the time. Satan is close to escaping Hell, and Heaven is under attack. Let me tell you, lots of things feel wrong right now.”
My fist hits his shoulder playfully. “You know what I mean. If you feel like evil is getting a hold on you, give me a heads-up. I can’t deal with friends turning against me when I’m fighting those nuns.”
He raises his thumb. “Deal.”
Meanwhile, Gisella is lifting the last member of the Shield into the kitchen. There’s no need to ask them if they’re ready. Their faces speak volumes. Each of them is as scared as I am but determined to get this done. The only one who doesn’t seem the least bothered by the task that lies ahead is Gisella. She’s always been confident, but her recently added powers must have shredded the last of her fears.
I like it. It boosts my confidence a bit too.
The werecat-witch releases the shadows, that slip back into their corners. She gestures for us to get out of the way. “I’ll go first, to hold them back.”
Vicky holds the rod out in front of her. “Wait. I think I should go first. I can keep them in place with this stick. It’s better if you save your energy for when we really need it.”
Gisella comes to a halt. “Fair enough. Let’s go together, in case the rod doesn’t work.”
Vicky places her hand on the doorknob and waits for Gisella to join her at the door. Their eyes meet, and when they nod in unison, Vicky opens the door. They step out into the hallway with their hands high and all of their muscles tensed, ready for any kind of attack. When all remains calm, I follow them out, with the others on my heels.
The nun’s low voice is coming from the room across the kitchen. The door is closed, so they haven’t noticed us yet.
“What do you want to do?” Vicky asks me in a whisper. “Go inside or lure them into the hallway?”
I turn to D’Maeo and Maël for advice, and they reach a conclusion at the same time. “The hallway.”
“We don’t know what’s behind that door. There might be weapons in there they can use. Here, we know what we’ve got,” D’Maeo explains.
Before anyone can respond, the low voice of the nun rings out loud and clear. “We go after them. Now!”
The last word is like thunder, and we back up as one.
I make a beeline for the wall next to the door and press myself against it, hoping to be invisible to anyone leaving that room. The others follow my example just before the door opens, and the nuns spill out into the hallway.
CHAPTER 20
The lanterns on the walls flicker as the sisters walk by. I can feel the atmosphere changing, even though I could already sense the evil as soon as we left the kitchen. With the possessed nuns so close, the air is thicker. It’s as if the darkness sucks the oxygen from the air, and an invisible weight presses down onto me, making it almost impossible for me to stay upright.
I don’t feel ready at all when the last nun turns around to close the door behind her and spots us.
She opens her mouth to warn the others, and I expect Vicky or Gisella to stop her. Or even Maël to slow her down in time. But they let her utter a scream that makes all the other nuns turn around.
Then I understand Vicky’s plan. The two sisters that were about to turn the corner at the end of the hall are walking back. Or sliding is more like it. The demons have obviously strengthened their hold on their hosts while we were gone. The ‘head nun’ even starts to spin like the tornado demons do.
I want to yell for someone to stop her, before she knocks us all over, but before the first consonant leaves my lips, Vicky holds out the rod, and the nuns all come to an abrupt halt.
Maël, who must have had the same fears as me, lowers her staff.
D’Maeo, Taylar and I step in front of our friends. Seemingly without any trouble, Vicky steers the nuns closer together so we can reach them all with the angel blood easily.
I take the wooden cross that Maël carved from my pocket and hold it out in front of me. Despite their frozen state, the expression on the sisters’ faces changes from menacing to fearful. They know what’s coming.
“I expel you from these innocent bodies,” I say, my voice clear and steady. I make the sign of a cross on myself and step forward to repeat the gesture for each of the nuns, holding the cross out with my other hand.
The nuns hiss and recoil as one, and I glance over my shoulder. “Are you losing them, Vicky?”
“I think I can hang on for a couple more minutes,” she grunts.
Maël raises her staff. “I will help her.”
“Great.” I nod at Taylar and D’Maeo. “Let’s continue.”
I lift the cross again and step closer to the sisters. I can see them struggling to pull themselves free from the power of the rod and Maël’s words. My eyes bore into those of the leader, and I make the sign of a cross, starting with a careful touch of her forehead.
“I compel you to leave this body and this world,” I say forcefully.
When I bring the cross forward, to press it against her forehead, D’Maeo sprays angel blood at her. Tiny drops hit her face, neck and hands, and a
growl rises from her throat. My body tells me to back up, but I stay put and keep going.
I take a step sideways to face the next nun, make the sign of a cross and repeat my words. “I compel you to leave this body and this world.”
The nun opens her mouth and spits at me. Black stuff lands on my shirt, just beneath the collar, and rapidly burns a hole in the fabric. Instead of ripping the shirt from my body, like I want to, I calmly reach for Taylar’s bottle and spray blood over the acid-like stuff. It falls apart in the same pitch-black ash that remains when a demon is killed. Although relief and hope burn inside me, I hide them when I look the nun in the eye again and press the wooden cross against her forehead. After all, the best way to face a demon inside a host is without emotion. Since it is impossible to drown out all of your feelings, unless you use a spell, this means you should make sure your face and body language don’t show anything.
All I do is give the nun a cold stare before moving on, as if the poison she spit at me didn’t affect me at all.
We’ve reached the last of the nuns when I sense something shifting in the air.
“Spray them, quickly!” I urge the two ghosts with the bottles.
Meanwhile, I back away from the group of nuns. D’Maeo and Taylar follow, and I shout out the words now, not caring about the emotions I’m showing. “Demons of Hell, I expel you from these bodies. I command you to leave and never come back to this world!”
The sisters simultaneously open their mouths and let out a deafening shriek that makes the walls tremble. The lights around us flicker, and some of them die.
“Don’t use it all,” I tell Taylar, who keeps spraying.
“But it’s working,” he calls back, without turning around. “Check out their skin!”
D’Maeo places a hand on the young ghost’s arm and pushes it down. “We will continue the exorcism as soon as we have them trapped again.”
Taylar nods reluctantly and falls in line with us.
I stop next to Vicky, whose face is contorted with concentration. The rod in her hand trembles worse than the walls, and her teeth chatter a bit. The flowers at the end of the stick are withering so fast I can barely tell what color they were.
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