Fallen: The Demontouched Saga (Book 2) (4 page)

This is the one relationship that I never really tried to rush. She was there as a shoulder to cry on in those early days. It took us another seven months to become serious. I wasn’t looking for a relationship. I only wanted a friend that hadn’t spent some quality time in hell.

“You look like shit.” She says walking to the fridge.

“I love you too.”

I take a seat on the couch and she hands me a beer. She is one of the really rare ones, to boot. How many can anticipate your desires without you saying a word, though I bet my blood caked clothes gave her the clue.

“Manage to find anything on Eunie?”

“Nothing. The only demons you hear about were the nasty ones.” Humanity’s one true flaw. We seemed to value the nastier parts of our existence the most. That’s why I never watched the news. If I wanted to see all the nasty shit I would have payed attention on my hour long commute each day. Blissful ignorance was the only way to go.

I pull Blaine’s journal from my jacket pocket. “One of these days I’m going to get a chance to read this over.”

She holds her hand out and I hand it to her. I wasn’t going to be able to get into it unless I managed to get a few Zs. “Go take a shower and get some rest. I’ll see if I can find anything.”

Give her a kiss and head to the bathroom. I shed my nasty clothes and turn on the water, glad that I have a gas water heater. I do my best to stay clean when I do my business, but Eunie is not as careful about things. I stick my head under the stream and run my fingers through my hair. The feeling of my blood matted hair tells me that I need to either shave my head or invest in a few shower caps.

I step out of the shower the moment the hot water runs out. As nasty as I still feel, if I want to have a chance of getting to sleep I had to avoid the frozen finale.

Flopping down on the bed, sleep takes me fairly quickly. I only hope the hell of the last few days doesn’t cause too many nightmares.

I wake up to the wonderful aroma of freshly brewed coffee. Opening my eyes I am greeted to the flashing red digits of my old alarm clock. One of these days I might actually find a battery for it, but for now I am glad that I’m no longer it’s slave.

Walking into the kitchen I kiss Sara on the cheek and take a seat at the table. She hands me my super sized cup of joe and then pulls some eggs out of the fridge.

“Find anything in the journal?”

She sets a plate in front of me. “That’s why I’m cooking breakfast. Someone has to keep an eye on your health.”

She was right. If it were up to me, I would be rushing off to whatever place she surely had earmarked in the journal. “Where is the book?”

She pulls the pan of eggs off of the stove and puts some on my plate. “You can have it as soon as you eat something.”

Ultimatums are always fun, but she can have this one. It will take a lot less time to eat than it would for me to tear apart the house looking for her new hiding spot. I douse the eggs with hot sauce and scarf them about as fast as I can and wash them down with a large gulp of coffee. I’m going to pay with a nasty case of heartburn later, but I don’t care.

“Done.” I walk my plate to the sink. “Now tell me what you found.”

“The first half of the journal is pretty nasty. Blane talks about the things he did to draw a demon to him. You remember the Miller twins?”

“The two little girls that came up missing about five years ago?” The two girls were the daughters of a farmer and a nurse. They were out in one of the fields picking some produce when three people approached the farm by gunpoint. They tried to fight off the attackers, but both the parents ended up critically wounded in the scuffle. Last I heard the old man was still alive, though that may have changed by now.

She sits down next to me. “Yeah, them. He talks about keeping them locked in cages for months. He finally sacrificed both of them about a month apart in failed summoning rituals.”

Demons used to be pretty fickle. Back in the past they could afford to be very picky about who they possessed. I don’t have a doubt they knew exactly what Blane was up to, but they really didn’t have a reason to jump in right away. He was on the fast lane to hell. Unless he did something to improve his power, they were probably content with letting him do his thing.

“What do the Miller twins have to do with me?”

“I was getting to that.” She opens up the journal to a page with a drawing of a necklace with a double cross looking symbol attached to it. It wouldn’t be odd if the crosses weren’t upside down.

“What is this?”

“It is Herod’s amulet.” She pulls up some nasty looking cultist website on her laptop. I know I brought her on my team for her ability with a computer, but this girl was way too fast on pulling this up. If I didn’t know she was on my side I would probably start to get a bit worried. “After three years of failed summoning rituals he started to look into objects that could be used to draw one to you. He hoped that he would be able to call one close and make some sort of pact.”

“Shit is never that simple. What went wrong?”

“Nothing went wrong. Not only was he able to draw a demon close, he managed to trap it in the amulet. With the amulet he was able to have all of the power of a demon without any of the problems.”

“Where do I sign up for that?” Its not that I hate Eunie, by any stretch of the imagination. I could just do with him taking over a lot less. Then again, he probably spends his time bitching about how my mouth gets me into situations he has to save my ass from.

“The journal doesn’t mention the amulet after that. We can only assume that they buried it with him.”

“You know what they say about assumptions.”

“Well, you make an ass out of yourself enough for the both of us already.”

“Ha ha. Where was he buried?”

She pulls up a map on one tab and a website on another. “He was buried at the Amhurst Cathedral.”

“How the hell did he manage to get a church burial?” After all of the murders, kidnappings, and the desecration of hundreds of holy objects you would think they wouldn’t want his corpse anywhere near the church.

“The church was against it for a while. The city held the body in the morgue for months while they tried to get the church to back down. Once the church learned about the amulet, they decided to bring they body in. They figured the body would be less likely to be disturbed on hallowed ground.”

“Makes sense to me. Where is this church?”

“About eighty miles out in a little town called Padoon.”

“Wait, is that the cathedral that they set up with all of the wards?”

“The very one.”

My stomach drops. I know some of the usual demon traps do not effect me, but I don’t have a whole lot of faith going into a church designed to keep people like me out.

“Well shit. Is there anything else in there?”

“Nothing.” She looks me in the eyes. “Back in the warehouse you were stuck in a devil’s trap, right?”

I nod.

“If that wasn’t able to hold you, then the wards at the church probably won’t either.”

“I’m not the experimental type. Besides, I’m not sure it’s worth the risk.’

“So you would rather sit around and wait for Michael to get done? The battle in Chicago can’t last forever.”

“That could take years.”

“And it could end tomorrow.” She sits down on my lap. “Just go down there and look around. If you find anything suspicious, I’ll call up Zeke and get you some help.”

I wrap my arms around her, kissing her gently on her lips. “Don’t want to join me this time?” I flash a grin.

“I had enough adventure last time.”

I let out a loud laugh, which draws a frown from Sara. She knows I’m just messing with her, but I am glad she doesn’t want to go. “Are we going to keep this up, or are you going to let me go grab a few things?”

She gives me one last kiss and gets off of my lap. I was half hoping she stayed there a while longer. Oh well, there will be plenty of time for that after I find this amulet.

-6-

I pull up on the parking lot. They built the Amhurst Cathedral about thirty years ago as a safe place to perform exorcisms. At some point the church decided they needed to stop sending priests in for house calls. It probably had something to do with the damage an exorcism usually causes. I’ve seen a few in my time and can tell you that it makes Eunie look like a softy.

The front of the cathedral is eerily quiet. I’m not sure what I expected, but I was certain that there would be someone crazy enough to use the place as a safe house. If the survivors knew what was really out there you could make a fortune just whoring out parking spaces.

As I approach the door I look around for signs of traps. I may not have seen any cars, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t people holing up on the inside. Reaching for the door, I give it a slight twist to see if it is locked. Many churches like this were open all of the time, when the handle turns completely I know that the policy has not changed. I take a deep breath and pull the door open.

The smell of mildew hits me as the air from the inside looks for an escape. Any concerns about people holing up in here dissipates as I notice the massive hole in the ceiling. It is hard to tell how long it has been like this, but the mold on the pews tells me it has been a few weeks at least.

I walk closer to the doorway and look around a bit more. When this place opened, they boasted about the wards that were placed as you enter the church. The hope was that they could expel any hitchhiking demons before they got into the church. I know the devil’s trap didn’t work on me in the warehouse, but this should be higher level work. The only glimmer of hope that I have is that Eunie is not freaking out at the moment. He has a danger sense that would make Spiderman jealous.

Fuck it. If he is calm, I should be too. Being calm doesn’t mean I can’t be scared shitless, so I hold my breath as I enter the room.

One step.

Two steps.

After five steps I release my breath, only to wish I didn’t have to as the smell is much worse in here than it is outside. Looking around I can see a layer of mold that covers most of the pews. Normally I am a fan of taking the direct path, but I decide to make my way to the stage by walking along the walls. The last thing I want to do is slip and fall in that shit.

Luckily the stage has been spared from the mold and mildew that covers the rest of the room. I make my way up to the pulpit and start to look around. Besides a bible and a few notes from the last sermon, there is nothing worth taking here. Turning around I walk to a door that is situated behind a large brass crucifix at the back of the room.

If I had to guess, this is the room where the priest of the week would prepare for the day’s sermon. They would have had one priest handle the majority of the sermons, but the nature of the building brought some of the highest ranking priests around the world. Ironically, the world went to shit the week that the Pope was supposed to arrive.

I pull out my flashlight and open the door. The room would be pristine if it wasn’t for the layer of dust covering everything. The smell of incense inside is much more welcoming than out here so I walk inside and take a deep breath and start to search the room.

There are two desks on opposite walls, each with its own mirror. Inside the desks I find nothing but notes and more incense. Finding nothing, I walk back to a door in the back of the room. I turn the knob, but this one doesn’t budge. At this point I wish I had Sara take a few minutes to pull up the layout of the place. I decide that it is not worth hoping that I am going to kick open a closet and pull out my gun. I’ve been pretty lucky so far, but if the water damage was limited to the front, there still might be someone inside.

I kick the door open and start to scan the area with the flashlight. The doorway leads to a short hallway with a door on each side. The hallway is decorated with a few holy tapestries and candles, but is otherwise empty. With three doors, and one of me, I wish I had given Zeke a call before I came here. I contemplate calling Sara, but I keep my phone in my pocket. If there was anyone here, I would have seen something by now. I know if I had to walk though moldville in order to sleep each night, I would find another place to stay fast.

Oh well. If I have to die in a church, I sure as hell am going to do it in a blaze of glory. I open the door to the left. Within moments, the light from my flashlight finds the backside of a brown hoodie.

“Why are you here, demontouched?” He turns around slowly.

“I could ask you the same thing.” I keep my aim squarely at his face, wishing I decided to have my knife out instead of the gun.

“I needed someplace safe to stay. There aren’t many left that still believe.” He sits down on a chair. “Your turn.”

“I’m looking for an amulet. It is supposed to be here somewhere.” I hand him the drawing I got from Sara.

“I’ve seen it before.” He hands my drawing back. “Tell me, why is it so important to you?” His eyes begin to glow.

Talking to a stranger about my demon problems isn’t normally my M.O., but I’ve seen the remains of the people who pissed him off and have no desire to join them. I spend a few minutes explaining my story, hoping he likes my answer.

“I’ll make you a deal. You help me kill someone who hopes to enslave your kind and in return I help you get your amulet.”

“If I refuse?” I need the amulet, but the last time I made a deal with someone I just met I wound up with a demon’s soul intertwined with mine.

“We walk away. I know I can handle my problem alone.” He does one of those Doctor Evil smiles, without his pinky. “Considering you are here, you don’t have a clue how to handle yours.”

“Doesn’t look like I have a choice.” I hate it when I get one upped like that. If the amulet isn’t here, I really have no fucking clue where to start looking for it. As much as I want to walk away from this shit, I know Michael won’t be in Chicago forever. I reach out to shake his hand.