Requiem (33 page)

“
You know my vote,” Claire
said.

“
Which is...?” Ryan said.
His eyes remained closed.

Kim stood and stretched. “Jared, I know you
want to find something, but we had a deal.”

“
I know,” Jared
growled.

I touched his arm. “What is Kim talking
about?”

Jared didn't look up from the pages. “The
promise I made her. If she helped us get back the book, then we
would go with her to Jerusalem...to return it to the Holy
Sepulchre. To set her family free.”

I couldn't argue, but Jared had just begun
to look it over. Kim was being uncharacteristically impatient.

“
What's the rush?” I
asked.

Kim waited for Jared to answer, but when he
stayed focused on the book, she sighed. “Shax holds my family
responsible. He'll retaliate.”

Claire laughed once. “He'll do that, anyway,
when you return it and it's out of his reach. Your family's held
him off this long. You can wait a few hours, Kim.”

“
You don't get it,” Kim
said.

“
Just let him read the damn
book,” Ryan groaned.

Questions formed in my mind, and I
swallowed, always hesitant to get the answer. No matter what she
might say, at that point I couldn't afford not to understand
anything. The days of keeping me in the dark were over. “What
doesn't Claire get, Kim?”

After a short pause, Kim took a breath. “I'm
not there,” she said in a low tone. I've always been twenty minutes
away; Shax knew that. He could have sent an entire legion to my
father's house, and within minutes I would be there, and they would
have to leave. We need to get on a plane, return the book, and then
I need to get home before Shax realizes what we've done. Right now
he just thinks you're looking for a loophole to the prophecy. He
has no idea he's about to lose the book forever.”

Claire put her elbow on the
back edge of the pew, and rested her head on her hand. “You don't
think Jared finding a loophole to the
prophecy
is more concerning to Shax
than losing the book?”

“
No,” Kim said,
matter-of-factly.

“
And why's that?” Claire
snapped back.

Quiet overcame the group, until Jared closed
the book with a clap. “Because there is no loophole.”

I smiled hopefully. “Stop it, Jared. You
haven't even read the whole thing, yet.”

“
I just did,” he said, his
eyes focused on the black seal that branded the cover. “They aren't
going to stop until they prevent the birth of our
child.”

Kim sat beside me, lowering her chin. “This
entire cat-and-mouse Jared's been engaged in has been a game to
Shax. The fact that Ryan is still alive should tell you...he's just
toying with all of us.”

I shook my head. “If that were true, why the
dreams? Why did Jack and Gabe push us to get the book?”

Jared stood. “Because they knew that is
exactly what I would do, and the dreams were their way of helping
us complete a fool's errand alive.”

“
No,” I said, standing next
to him. “I don't believe that. If that were true, they would tell
me to stay away from the book, not how to get it. Gabe wouldn't
have helped my father if it was pointless.”

“
Maybe you're right,” Jared
said. “Maybe we need a little more time with it.”

“
Jared?” Bex
said.

Kim held up her hand in frustration. “Shax
is a Duke of Hell, Jared. You pretty much walked into his house and
slapped him, and he let you just walk out? Do you really think
that's how it works?”

Ryan pulled the fabric from his eye,
revealing a deep, bloody gash. “We didn't just walk out, Kim, trust
me. They put up a fight. I've never seen anything like that in my
life, and I hope I never do again.”

“
Jared,” Bex said
again.

Jared frowned at Bex, and then returned his
attention to Kim. “Nina is your friend. Are you telling me you're
not willing to wait for us to figure this out before we take it
somewhere that we can never get it back?”

“
She is my friend, but this
is my family we're talking about. We've been dealing with this for
lifetimes. It's time to end it. It's time the Pollocks are free of
it.”

Jared looked down at the book in his hands,
and then back to Kim, his expression stern. “I understand your
plight, but you're not getting this back until I'm satisfied
there's nothing in it that can help Nina,” Jared said, shoving it
under his arm.

Kim took a step forward. “We had a
deal.”

“
I haven't forgotten that,”
Jared answered.

Father Francis came in with the first aid
kit, taking quick steps. “I'm afraid it wasn't where I thought it
would be....” he said, trailing off.

“
Jared!” Bex yelled.
“They're coming!”

“
Oh my God,” Kim whispered,
her eyes slowly rising to the ceiling.

A deafening boom surrounded St. Anne's.
Every window burst inward, covering the ground with shards of
colored glass. Jared took me to the floor, covering me with his
body.

Even after the explosion, it sounded as if a
tornado was hovering above the church.

“
Not in the House of the
Lord!” Father Francis yelled over the noise, his arms extended to
the sky.

The priest was lifted high in the air by an
invisible assailant, his legs kicking until he was blown back,
smashing into the beautiful mural high above the stage. Pieces of
the painting came down with him when he fell to the floor.

Bex rolled into the aisle, and then took off
toward the priest, so fast his body was a blur. He took Father
Francis, limp and lifeless, into his arms.

The wind rushing through the broken windows
blew Bex's platinum hair wildly as he felt for a pulse on the
priest's neck.

“
He's alive!” Bex
called.

Another explosion shook the building, and
pieces of the ceiling fell in large chunks onto the pews, sending
sheet rock and plaster into the air.

“
We have to move!” Jared
yelled, pulling me to my feet.

The large wooden door blew open, forcing
another strong pulse of wind across the room. Had Jared not kept
his arms around me, I would have fallen over.

I held my hand to my face to shield it from
the blast. When I lowered it, Shax was standing in the doorway.

He wore an all-black suit, shirt and tie,
matching his cold, obsidian eyes. A small smirk was on his face. He
was finally ready to fight.

Jared stood his ground, positioned in front
of me. Claire stood on the other side, guarding her Taleh.

Shax looked to each side of the church in
dramatic fashion. “Where is your Samuel now, Jared?”

“
He's around,” Jared said,
his body rigid.

“
I'm afraid you've made yet
another mistake, and Heaven won't intervene this time.”

Two shadows that had been lurking behind
Shax came into view under the dim light of the church. Isaac and
Donovan stood on each side of their demonic master, their
expressions anxious and ready. They had come to murder us all.

Jared shifted. “Isaac, listen to me. You
don't have to do this.”

“
Shut up,” Donovan
said.

“
I don't want you to die,”
Jared continued, “but if he comes near her, I'll kill
him.”

Isaac smiled. “Not if I kill her, first. And
I will.”

“
You're outnumbered,”
Claire said, her small yet frightening voice somehow carrying
across the room.

Shax grinned, and the long, clawed hands and
feet of the night filtered into the room, covering the walls and
ceiling. I looked above me, seeing grotesquely malformed bodies of
demonic minions scale the crumbling rafters.

The smell of burnt flesh and sulfur was
overwhelming, and I could feel bile rise in my throat. Shax's
servants weren't screeching this time, but making strange, excited
cooing and whistling noises, waiting for the order to attack.

“
Give me the book,” Shax
hissed.

“
No,” Jared said, tossing
the leather bound pages to Kim.

“
I dare you to come and get
it, though,” Kim smiled.

Shax slowly turned his head to Isaac, and
then Isaac's smirk turned into a satisfied grin. He pushed the far
pew with both hands, slamming it into the pew before it, creating a
domino effect. As the heavy benches toppled over and blew forward
with the speed of a freight train, Jared and Claire reacted,
jumping to the other side with Ryan and I in tow.

Kim simply side-stepped to the center aisle,
remaining calm as thousands of pounds of wood narrowly missed her
body.

“
You're going to have to do
better than that,” Kim said.

Isaac leaped the hundred yards to Kim's
position, and then wrapped on hand around her throat, lifting her
off the ground. “I'm not a demon. You can't control me.”

With a grunt, Isaac threw Kim back, but Bex
moved quick, catching her before she collided with the podium. The
demons concentrated in the area closest to Kim scattered, afraid of
being too close.

Bex looked Kim in the eyes, and after she
acknowledged that she was okay, he scrambled to his feet, taking
off full speed, slamming into Isaac. When they collided, a loud
crack echoed throughout the cathedral.

My human eyes couldn't make out who was
hitting who, until Bex hit Isaac so hard that his body sailed
across the air, and he landed in the exact spot he started, next to
Shax.

“
It's like people tennis,”
Ryan said, in awe. “Everyone keeps flying across the
room.”

Isaac wasn't about to quit. He engaged Bex
again, but this time Isaac got the upper hand. Bex was on the
ground, and after the second time Isaac landed a blow that would
have been fatal to a human, Jared's arm tensed.

“
Do something!” I
said.

“
I can't leave you,” he
said. “If I take my attention off of you for a second, they'll
attack.”

Donovan walked down the center aisle with
purpose, dodging the falling chunks of ceiling. Claire pulled out
her firearm, aiming right at his face. Isaac's attention was
distracted, then, and Bex head-butted Isaac, and then threw him
against Donovan. They both slid across the floor.

Isaac stood, pulled out his gun, and aimed
directly at Ryan.

“
No!” Claire said, throwing
herself in front of him.

Ryan and Claire were face to face when
Isaac's gun discharged. Claire's body jerked twice as it was hit,
and Ryan's horrified expression matched hers.

Stunned, Claire looked down, and then turned
to Jared. “They went through me.”

Claire and Ryan fell to their knees at the
same time, and Jared rushed to his sisters side. He pulled me with
him, and I fell to my knees just behind him.

Ryan's head fell back, and he coughed, blood
spraying up and spattering across his cheek.

“
Oh, God, no!” Jared cried,
pulling off his shirt and wadding it up, pressing it against Ryan's
wounds.

Isaac's maniacal laugh seemed to be all
around us. “I always wanted to see that smug smile wiped off your
face, Claire.”

Bex glanced at the bloody scene, and then
focused on Isaac, his hands balled into fists at his sides. He
lowered his chin, then, and his expression morphed into something
one might see from a demon rather than an angel.

Claire looked up at her brother,
expressionless. “End this.”

Horrified, I watched Claire tend to Ryan's
wounds, but within moments, Jared pulled me to my feet.

He took my hand in one of his, and then
pulled out his side arm with the other. He pointed it directly at
Isaac, shooting one round after another, walking toward him as he
fired, forcing me to follow.

Isaac jerked with each hit, stumbling
backward. “You son-of-a-bitch!” Jared screamed, his eyebrows and
lips pulled in so tight, the skin around them was white.

“
Jared!” Bex cried, but it
was too late.

Donovan had his gun to Jared's temple. “I
suppose it'll take you a while to heal from this one,” Donovan
said.

An abrupt blast resounded in the room, and
Donovan fell to his knees, finally falling over, succumbing to the
bullet hole I had just shot into his brain.

“
Shawn!” Isaac said,
struggling to reach his Taleh.

It was too late for both of them. Shawn
Donovan's life had already spilled onto the floor.

Isaac fell back, already feeling a weakness
in his body.

Jared's eyes were wide as he processed what
had just happened. “You killed him,” he said softly, looking to
me.

“
He was pointing a gun at
your head,” I explained.

Jared laughed once, momentarily forgetting
that we were still surrounded by the enemy.

A quick wind passed by, and Bex and Shax
were suddenly in a ball. The sounds coming from their scuffle were
horrific. Distracted, Shax lost his control on the demons clustered
on the walls and ceiling, and they began descending from their
position, and swarming around us.

“
Run to Kim!” Jared said,
pushing me in her direction.

The hundred yards down the aisle to where
she was protecting the book seemed a mile away, but I took off
without hesitation.

Seeing that I was running to her, Kim
scrambled to her feet, sprinting down the aisle to meet me. I
turned, seeing Jared and Bex attacking Shax, and his minions were
quickly crawling to the floor in endless numbers. Adrenaline kicked
in, and my feet moved faster, desperate to reach Kim before the
demons caught me.