Cast In Blood: Revelations Series Book 1: (19 page)

D
rew tackled the djinn
, and with a slow, concentrated breath, she tugged at its dark but powerful soul. The two went down together, hitting the floor with a heavy thud. Her ability to pull away at Celia's life force by touch alone was nothing compared to the damage she could have done under more intimate circumstances, but the beast within her had stirred from the little she'd fed it, and now it was ravenous.

If only she'd learned more from her father, she would have known how to channel this power, how to draw and consume this soul—tainted as it might be—more effectively. As it stood, she had little idea what she was doing, her only training having been Polly's second-hand instruction. Instinct kicked in, her only saving grace when the djinn's psychic tendrils challenged her own, creating an invisible battle between them.

More screams rang out, the few remaining parishioners fleeing through the closest doors, when Celia shifted into her true form and physically overpowered Drew. It tried to strangle her, surprised when Drew somehow continued to tug at and ingest the creature's life force. Images began to come to her, fragments of her opponent's memories, and Drew had to put forth even more effort to piece them together into cohesive thoughts. Some of what came either made no sense at all or was irrelevant to their cause, but some useful bits did make it through.

In her mind, she saw the djinns organizing their efforts. They had sympathizers in Heaven and Hell, and they converged in another plane that seemed to belong to them alone, and they numbered in the thousands. The djinn came in several variations, but Drew could recognize each individual just as well as the djinn she now syphoned from.

In one memory, one of the organizers, a fat, ugly creature named Panuk, handed out dozens of leather bags that were held closed with drawstrings. A member nearby opened his bag and looked inside, revealing a translucent blue dagger. He tested it against his skin with a quick touch, pulling away when it singed his finger.

The name of the mineral flashed through Drew's mind: angelite.

The knowledge came to her that this material was deadly to demons of all forms—but it also was a necessary component to the spell the djinn were using to make their escapes from Hell. Drew couldn't pull from the creature's essence any information as to where they'd obtained the angelite, only that it was abundant in Heaven.

Even the Pearly Gates were made of the stuff.

Another memory showed her Demas and a few others shaving brimstone from the fiery walls, and then another showed them crushing it into a fine powder and distilling it with numerous other ingredients. With another spell, they enriched the resulting clear, yellow liquid with traces of their own essence, and it turned a smoky black color.

They believed the liquid created the necessary base to a disease never before seen by humankind. That base would end up in a laboratory in New Mexico, where a Dr. Sandberg would mix it with the necessary biological material to create a super plague.

And, like the stones the djinn had convinced religious leaders all across the globe would "deliver" countless souls, this plague would bind them to Earth.

Starving Heaven and Hell alike.

Drew tried to seek out more specifics on the lab and the plague they planned to unleash, but a sharp psychic attack pulled her from the djinn's mind to her own, forcing her back into the moment. The djinn had successfully cut off her airway, and her vision had begun to grow dim. She looked at Lenny for help, only to find she had her hands full with a djinn of her own.

Panic hit, and she tried to remember how she'd produced the psychic blast that had thrown Hershel off her. It had just … happened, but the knowledge of how to do it on command had to be in her somewhere. She closed her eyes, her concentration fading with her senses. She'd felt a particular sensation when the energy had thrust itself from her, but recreating the event felt just beyond her reach. She struck and clawed at the strong arms holding her down, even raked her fingernails against the creature's fat, red face, but to no avail.

Their eyes locked, hers under fluttering eyelids, threatening to roll back on her. The pressure in her face made her feel flushed, and her mouth opened wide in her attempt to force in one good breath. She couldn't scream. She couldn't push her attacker off. She couldn't fight off the hands tightly clasped around her throat.

She closed her eyes, too tired to continue in the struggle. In that moment, the weight lifted and the grip cutting off her airway loosened. She felt like she was floating, and her first thought was that this must be what it feels like to slip away from the living, her soul leaving its body, readying the journey to wherever it was she would spend the rest of eternity.

Which place would it be?

"Bitch!" the djinn growled, the word echoing as though through a massive cave.

She opened her eyes, gasping in a quick and painful inhalation of air when the creature's grip slid and they floated away from one another. Their surroundings reminded Drew of Limbo, but this place was filled with colors, like they'd entered a giant prism.

What the hell…?

The djinn's flabby limbs flailed in what looked like a pathetic attempt at swimming to her, but it merely continued to drift. Its eyes were wide with anger … and was that also a hint of horror?

"I'll tear you apart, limb by limb!" it shrieked.

Yes, definitely horror.

Did I do this?
Drew wondered, although a part of her already knew the answer. She'd somehow transported both of them to a different plane.

Somewhere on the astral?

Her body relaxed for a moment while she recovered from the near-miss at being strangled to death, and she felt a slight smile come to her lips.
Yeah, that's right; you keep drifting off into whatever else is in this weird void
, she thought, watching the creature continue trying to fight the weightless reach between them.

"Take us back!" the djinn commanded, although there was no longer any authority left in its voice.

Drew crossed her arms, enjoying the shift in power. To see something so monstrous, so intimidating, suddenly scrambling so desperately was enough to make her suppress a light chuckle.

"I'm gonna break every bone in your body!"

Drew shrugged. "You're gonna have to reach me first."

The creature snarled, suddenly a rabid beast, fire in its eyes while it reached and clawed at the open air. "You can't keep us here forever—"

Those words alone were enough to shock Drew out of her high. How did a person leave a place such as this? Could she get herself back?

As if responding to a mental cue, her surroundings shifted and the church materialized around them. They went from suspended in the air to a freefall to the floor, and they both hit it hard.

The djinn lunged forward, unfazed, and grabbed her again by the throat. "I'm gonna have fun with you," it said, lifting her off her feet.

Again, Drew pulled at her opponent's life force, but the battle on both the physical and psychic fronts became too much for her to handle, although the energy she did manage to steal was probably all that saved her from an otherwise certain death when the creature tightened its grip and flung her into the pews.

She stayed there for a moment, dazed but giddy. The energy charged through her, culminating into a ball of dark, heavy foulness deep inside her gut, and she was unsure whether she would laugh like a maniac next or violently puke. Both came at once. When the djinn advanced, ready for the kill, she was too busy retching and heaving out the thick, black sludge her body had filtered out and rejected. She saw the djinn through the corner of her eye, unable to respond in time for flight or fight.

While it was in mid-air, Lenny, moving in the form of another djinn, leapt toward the creature and thrust it into a neighboring pew. Something in its side cracked upon impact, but it only laughed at the pain. Drew collapsed, coughing up the final remnants of filth, dizzy with the residual energy.

Another djinn advanced on Lenny, and Drew realized the shifter had abandoned her own battle in order to give her a fighting chance while she recovered.

Both of the djinn attacked Lenny at once, and Drew watched, too punch-drunk to assist, while they tore and raked at her. She held her own at first, parrying strikes and rebounding against sharp teeth and massive claws, but it didn't take long for them to gain the upper hand.

Drew tried to get up, but only managed to heave more black ooze onto the floor. She watched through hazy eyes, slipping into unconsciousness right after catching a glimpse of Polly's massive form joining in on the battle.

"
I
s
this a private party or can anyone join?" Polly quipped as she teleported into the church amidst a battle that was pure free-for-all.

"Demon!" screamed a djinn that had been knocking around Lenny.

Polly looked around for Drew and found her. She saw the woman's eyes roll back into her head and her body go limp. Seeing that the succubus was out cold (luckily being ignored by humans and djinn alike), Polly went to Lenny's aid, fighting her way through a mob of idiotic humans that fell almost as quickly as she hit them.

The djinn saw her coming and scurried away from Lenny, leaving the shifter slumped to the floor and trying to catch her breath. Polly was livid as she recognized the female as being the one that had attacked her and J. D. The coward had run before she could be dealt with, and Polly wouldn't make that mistake again. Snarling, punching her way through human after moronic human that tried to attack her, Polly made her way to the djinn.

"You will not escape me this time. I will have your ass in my chair and you will spill your guts, then you'll tell me everything." A wicked half-snarl, half-smile turned up the corners of Polly's mouth, and hellfire shone through her eyes as bright as any lightbulb. The djinn turned to run and found herself with her back against the wall.

"You said you would help me! We made you the Messenger for a reason!" The djinn cried out to an empty corner.

Polly looked around, confused for a moment, until she saw a shadow flee the corner and hurry out through the door. She considered pursuing it, but instead, she refocused her anger on the djinn. She figured she'd hunt that shadow creature down later; they were fairly harmless beings with little to no power.

"You hurt some friends of mine. I really don't like cowards who hurt people and try to run. Not to mention you escaped from Hell, and that, my dear, is a very. Big. No-no." Polly grabbed the djinn by her throat with her left hand and brought her right fist into its gut.

"Oof! I'm just a lackey,
puta
. I'm not the one you're after."

"Don't really care at this point. I'll find the one I'm after. Until then, I'll be happy to use you as my punching bag." Polly grinned broadly and sent her fist into the djinniri's nose. A loud crunch and a flow of scarlet brought a bigger smile to the demon's lips.

"You should care. I can help you."

"Oh, sweetie, I don't need your help." Polly tightened her grip on the djinniri's throat and a large scarlet bubble began forming from the woman's nose. A human male rushed her from behind and tried to hit her with a large prayer book. Polly sent her right elbow into the human's face and donkey kicked the man in the testicles.

"Let Celia go, you monster!" A tall, willowy brunette ran at Polly as she yelled.

"Aw, you didn't tell your little prayer group that you're a demon, did you, Celia?"

The woman stopped in her tracks and stammered, "What? Stop spreading your filthy lies!"

"Tell her, Celia. Tell
all
of them the truth of what you and Hershel's other Faithful are. Tell them what you were doing here. Tell them about how you were stealing people's souls. Tell them how you led people to their deaths just for those souls. Explain how you fed off the souls of the homeless these people thought they were helping." As Polly ranted at the djinniri, she called up her hellfire. The djinn looked into her eyes and gasped.

Celia saw everything, all of her sins, within that fire. Polly relaxed her grip on the lesser demon's throat and looked around to see Lenny had shifted into Demas' form and was tearing apart the other djinn. While her attention was on the shifter, Celia struck at her with a small angelite knife she pulled from a sheath on her thigh.

As the blade of light blue stone pierced her flesh, Polly felt like she was in one of her torture chairs being burned alive. She grabbed at the blade and tried to pull it out, but Celia broke off the hilt, leaving only bare angelite behind in Polly's shoulder. Her hand smoked and burned as she tried to pull it out without letting go of Celia.

Realizing it wasn't going to happen, Polly squeezed until the djinniri fell limp in her grasp. She held tight another second for good measure and dropped the djinn to rip the blade from her flesh. Her hands slipped on the blood and sizzled as they made contact with the angelite, making the task even more uncomfortable. She finally managed to get a good grip and yanked the remainder of the blade from her shoulder. It smoked as droplets of her blood ran down it. The blade smoked even more as it landed on Celia's cheek, waking the lesser demon from her bout of blackness.

She lunged for Polly's legs, trying to tackle the tall demon down low. Polly chuckled and kicked her in the chest. Then, filled with rage for everything the rotten filthy djinn had done to Hell, and to Lucy, Polly picked up the djinniri in one hand and the angelite in the other. Her hands blistered and bled, but Polly held the blade up to Celia's throat and yelled, "Tell them what you are and why you were here!"

"Fine! I'm a demon! I did it. We killed people so we could steal their souls. Hershel and his Faithful were sent here to collect as many souls as we could. There are other things, so many things, I could tell you, but I won't." Celia smiled as the blade slipped from Polly's fingers. The burn from the stone had been harsher than Polly could bear, and it tumbled to the ground while the demon's fingers still smoked and sizzled from their contact with it.

Celia took one of her hands off Polly's strong wrist and reached into her pocket. She grabbed something from within and tried to shove it into Polly's mouth. As the demon leaned back out of Celia's reach, the djinn appeared to realize what she was trying to do wouldn't work.

Instead, she shouted, "
Viva los djinn!
" and swallowed the object she had been trying to shove in Polly's face. Almost immediately, the djinniri began convulsing and foaming at the mouth. Several specks of foam hit Polly's hand, and she winced as the traces of angelite within burned her. She let go of Celia and the angelite blade as she watched the woman's lifeless body slide to the floor. Polly said a quick incantation over the body. A mist issued forth from the djinn's mouth, and with the incantation Polly sent the soul to Hell, and Lucy, where it belonged.

Several of the humans had heard Celia's confession and stopped fighting. They backed off to the other side of the room and began talking. Soon, the rest of Hershel's congregation was quiet and staring at Polly. Lenny backed away from the human who had been attacking her. He stopped and stepped even farther away, looking sheepish and embarrassed when the gossip reached his ears. Lenny shrugged it off and began taking her true appearance while she moved to Polly's side.

"Is it true, what Celia just said?" a man with brown hair and a scar down the left side of his face asked.

"Yes, Celia and the other djinn —that's the type of demon they were, though some might call them genies—were here to take souls away from Heaven and Hell. They were trying to take over, but we have stopped them…. You're welcome," Lenny said condescendingly as she wiped a drop of blood away from her eye.

Polly shot Lenny a look telling her to be quiet. "Yes, they were not the people you thought they were."

"What happened to all those people we got off the streets?" a tiny blond woman asked.

"They're dead. Hershel took their souls and gave them to the djinn. I have no idea where they are right now, but my guess is there is a djinn out there that has been consuming them."

"Eating souls? You can't eat souls," a woman with bright red hair said snidely.

"Humans can't eat souls, but demons and angels can. We don't do it unless it's an emergency, because those souls deserve to go to Heaven or Hell." Polly was starting to become uncomfortable with this little Q and A session she'd never meant to start.

"There is a Heaven and Hell, though?" This came from one of the people near the back of the crowd that was gathering around Polly and Lenny. Polly grabbed Lenny's arm and started walking closer to where Drew was. The succubus was still out of it, but her eyelids were fluttering a little, which let Polly know she would be coming around. The crowd parted to let them through and moved after them.

"Yes, there is both Heaven and Hell. Yes, your choices take you to either one. Yes, it is possible to move from Hell to Heaven and vice versa."

"Where will I go?" Several members of the Children of Light asked the same question.

"That is entirely up to you. As of this moment, you all have a chance at redemption," Polly lied, trying to buy some time so that she could reach Drew and get the three of them back to Hell and away from all these people. Polly was certain they'd start coming after her again, and she was really tired of killing people just because they were idiots.

"What do you mean?" the petite blonde asked again. The seal of Hell shone on her soul, but it was slight, which meant she really did have a chance.

"If you leave here and live good lives, helping people, taking care of each other, there is still a chance for you. If you go out there and start stealing, lying, cheating, robbing, and killing, I will see you again and you will not like it. Part of my job is to punish the guilty." Polly smiled her most wicked and terrifying grin.

"Why should we trust you? You're a demon!" the man with the scar yelled.

"Fine, don't trust me, Roy. I see the seal of Hell is on you." Polly called up the hellfire and looked deeper into the man's soul. "You killed two people in the past. Hmm, you did it to defend another, which is honorable, but murder is murder, Roy. You will never be able to erase that deed, but if you live the rest of your life being good and helping others, you might escape Hell." Polly allowed the fire to ebb from her and noticed the others had stepped away from the man, who was now sobbing.

"They were going to kill my baby sister—I had to do something! Nobody would help me!" The man's pathetic mewling was enough to give Polly a headache.

"Go forth and do good works, and you have a chance to escape the fire of Hell," Lenny said dramatically.

Polly glanced at her with a raised eyebrow, and Lenny shrugged.

"Wh-what's happening?" Drew asked as she came to, shaking her head as if to clear the cobwebs.

"And Sleeping Beauty rises," Polly said.

"I got some info from Celia. I think I know more about the djinn's plan."

"We can debrief when we get back to Hell." Polly turned to the scared group of people. "We have to run, folks. Do what your friend Lenny said and you might have a chance." She grabbed Drew and Lenny and popped out of the church and into Hell.

"What's going on? We don't have to stay down here do we?" Drew asked, her nose wrinkling against the smells of pain, lies, and evil that permeated Hell.

"No, I just needed to get us out of the church before they went all ‘torches and pitchforks' on us." Polly smiled and steered the women to the break room.

The demon Drew and Lenny had encountered in the break room before was sitting on the couch with a mug of coffee in his hand. Lenny noticed the mug had a picture of a kitten hanging from a tree limb and yellow lettering that spelled out "Hang in there" on both sides.

"Hey, I don't want any trouble! You two leave me alone, you big bullies!"

"Us, bullies?" Lenny spat.

"You're the one who attacked us!" Drew shouted.

"Yeah, well, I wouldn't say attacked…."

"Oh, yeah? What would you call it?" Lenny stepped forward, her hands clenched in anger.

"I showed some interest in that one," he pointed at Drew, "but they both just attacked me."

"Bullshit, Frank. I know what happened. I saw everything through her eyes." Polly pointed at Drew and then at the demon. "Apologize to my guests and be on your way, or you can help Bis with the gremlins."

"Fine! Sorry I attacked you girls. I was just trying to have a little fun. I was just playing with ya. Jeeze, you outsiders are so touchy," Frank said as he set his coffee mug on the break room counter. Noticing it was within Lenny's reach, he snatched it back, eyeing her suspiciously. He looked at Polly. "I have to get back to torturing Hitler. If he isn't roasted daily, I'll get the flack for it. May I be excused?"

"Yeah, get back to work, Frank. Don't ever mess with anyone in this room again,
capisce
?"

"Yeah, I understand," the demon said, looking awfully sulky for such a terrifying, hulking beast.

"Thanks for apologizing," Lenny said and then added, "Ow!" as Drew elbowed her in the ribs.

"Don't thank him for apologizing—he tried to hurt us!"

"But he apologized for it."

"I really am sorry. I didn't know you were friends of Polly's." Frank looked contrite.

"I accept your apology," Lenny said. "Also, it was fun kicking your ass."

"Yeah, I had no clue you had such mad skills. Props." Frank smiled weakly at Lenny and Drew, then rinsed out his mug, his eyes never leaving Lenny, and placed it in the highest possible cupboard. He turned and left the break room.

"What the hell, Lenny?" Drew asked.

"What? The guy apologized and, besides, we did kind of kick his ass."

"It doesn't matter, he was going to hurt us."

"Why don't you two just agree to disagree?" Polly said.

"Okay."

"Works for me." Drew said.

"I just have to make a stop really quick first, and then I'll take you two home. Stay here." Polly left the women in the break room and walked to her office to grab the scrap of cloth she'd found earlier in the torture cell. From there, she took it to the gamekeeper of Hell and asked him to have a hellhound run down the owner of the cloth. She returned to the ladies in the break room and popped them into Drew's apartment.

When Drew saw she was back home, she looked at them and said, "I hope you two don't mind, but I need to sleep for about a week. You can see yourselves out."

Lenny turned to Polly and said, "I don't really have anywhere to go."

Polly handed her the two keys she'd grabbed from her office and popped Lenny over to a furniture store. "Pick out whatever you like. I will make the payment arrangements while you are shopping."