“Don’t lose them,” Zeek added. He had a shotgun slung over each shoulder, and an axe that looked eerily similar to the first showing behind his head. A utility belt with boxes of shells attached to it caused his coat to bulge out at the sides.

  “Can’t we just rip his throat out?” Ulnyx said. “It would be my pleasure.”

  I ignored the Were. “What about the rest of the Templars?” I asked.

  “They’re willing to die for this, of course,“ Charis said. “But we’re few enough in number. I’m not going to just throw away their lives.”

  I nodded. I knew from her memories how much they had lost. “We have no way to track Rebecca and Sarah unless they reveal themselves,” I said. “We know they want the Grail, and we know they need Satan’s Bible. I think our best chance right now is to stop them before they can get the Chalice.”

  “If they go after it first,” Zeek said.

  “They will,” Charis replied. “They know that Landon knows they’re after it. They’ll want to get their hands on it before we can react. They have a huge head start though. I don’t know if we can catch up.”

  I flashed her a sly smile. “Do you think I would make it that easy?” I asked. “They’ll get the Grail with enough time for sure, but hopefully we haven’t reached enough time yet.”

  She reached back for the memory and returned my smile with one of her own. “You are a clever boy,” she said.

  My face flushed at the compliment. “If we don’t catch them, we need to get to the Bible before they do, plus we’ll need Obi and Thomas if we’re going to have any hope of decrypting the strings.” I could only hope that they had known what they were doing when they had torched my collection.

  “It’ll make it a whole lot easier if we can cut them off instead of chasing them,” Zeek said.

  “I don’t know if ‘easier’ is the word I would use,” I replied. “But the Beast needs Sarah to get out, which means we need to get to Sarah first. If we fail at that, we find Obi and get the Bible.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Zeek agreed.

  “The rift is on the rooftop,” Charis said. “I disabled it to prevent us from being followed, but Vilya and I can put it back together. It won’t take long.”

  “Let’s go,” I said.

  Charis bypassed the elevator and led us up to the roof via the emergency stairs. We emerged into a gray gloom and a stiff buffeting wind. The roof was large and flat, with a helipad in the center and a radio spire rising to the south. The transport rift was tucked into the space below the spire, hidden from view of the Divine by the physical obstruction.

  “It will only take a few minutes,” Charis said when we approached. I could see that some of the runes had been scraped clean.

  “Nothing to do but wait,” Zeek said.

  I scanned the sky with my Sight, my hackles raised. If Sarah were keeping a lookout for me, she would know right where I was. Somehow she and Rebecca had managed to get the angels and fire demon on our tail mid-flight to our original Swiss destination - I didn’t doubt they could do the same, or worse, again.

  The geography around us was clear, at least as far as I could tell. Someone in Hell had taught Rebecca how to make herself and others invisible to Sight. Someone who was clearly a servant, and clearly powerful; but who? Was there an even stronger enemy out there, just waiting in the wings in case she failed? If there was, with any luck they were trapped in Hell.

  I felt the change in the transport rift before Charis had a chance to announce that it was ready. It was a strange sensation, like being tickled by the edge of a flame, and one that I hadn’t felt, or at least noticed before. A few seconds later the flames ignited around the circumference of the rift.

  “Come on,” Charis said, motioning us through.

  Zeek went first, a shotgun cradled in his arms, just in case. I didn’t hesitate to follow, finding my focus as I stepped in.

  I was greeted by the strong smell of burned wood and the sight of a flamed out husk of a structure interspersed among the small army of Divine that greeted us on the other side. My Sight flared in response to the heat. A trap? Or just an obvious immersion point? Either way, we had just walked right into an ambush.

  The first wave of demons had pounced the moment Zeek had appeared, but his initial salvo of holy water laden shells had managed to slow the advance. Even so, I found myself ducking and jiving out of the way of vampire claws even before I could pull my right foot all the way through. I dropped to a knee and whipped the sword from my back, planting it into the demon’s chest and using it to shove it away. The blade slid free through a cloud of smoke, but I watched it sizzle and heal over in a matter of seconds. Not good.

  “Zeek,” I shouted, reaching out and grabbing the Templar before he could move too far from the rift. We had two choices, stay and fight or go back through. I was going to pull him back, but then Charis appeared and all hell really broke loose.

  Her sword came to her hand like magic, flashing in the light of the rift and severing the claws that grabbed for her, circling back around and decapitating the first vampire that tried to touch her. She crouched low and kicked out, hitting a second vamp in the groin and launching him backward a good twenty feet.

  “Come on, Landon,” she spat, her eyes on fire. “It doesn’t matter if they’ve been suckling from your girlfriend if you take their heads.”

  Her words hit me. I was stronger, faster, better than before, and I shouldn’t be letting their healing factor psych me out. Renewed, I slipped around a shorter female and grabbed the dagger, using it to pin her while I took her head with the sword. Another vampire was coming at Zeek from behind, and I tossed the dagger into its forehead. The move only slowed it long enough for it to reach up and remove the blade, but that was all the time the Templar needed. His axe swung cleanly through the demon’s neck.

  “You fight like a girl,” Ulnyx growled from below the surface, his voice clear in my mind.

  I felt him reach out, asking for control. I could see the threads of power now, and understand them. I knew I could keep him contained, and so I let him take it. His power poured into my body, his soul capturing a portion of my mind and beginning to issue commands. My body moved like a marionette, sheathing the blades, hands shifting to a nasty set of claws, reaching out and ripping the head from one of the demons. I observed through shared eyes, my heart beginning to beat wildly at the scene of the destruction the Were created.

  No longer participating in my physical motion, I focused, reaching out to the splinters of wood around us, sending them airborne and planting them into the enemy masses. It didn’t do much damage, but it was a distraction, and it gave Charis and Zeek time to dig in with their blades.

  “A little better,” Ulnyx said, his gravel voice filled with bloodlust. “I’m starting to like you, meat.”

  “Then you’ll love this,” I said, shifting my focus downward. The ground began to tremble, and pointed berms of earth shot up below the feet of the demons, spearing them through the legs and groin. Ulnyx pounced on one, grabbing its head and twisting, taking pleasure in the crack of the separating spine.

  I couldn’t use my eyes, so I focused on my Sight, using it to find Charis and Zeek both taking advantage of the chaos I had caused. I felt Charis’ attention shift towards me, and a moment later a lance of heat reached through my body.

  The pain was intense, and I recoiled, the lapse in concentration forcing Ulnyx from my nerve center, causing my body to revert to human form.

  “What the hell?” he cried, at the same time I glared wildly at my counterpart. I saw her own expression turn to one of shock as she realized what I was thinking.

  Before I could say anything, I caught the sickening stench of burned flesh, and I spun around. Lurching towards me was another vampire, charred from head to toe but healing fast. Without a second thought I pulled the dagger and brought it around, severing its skull in one smooth stroke. By the time I turned around again, Charis had moved on.

  The enemy ranks were thinning, and it only took a few more defeats for them to break off the attack, the furthest edges of the army fading away into the darkness at a full run. The demons may have fed on Rebecca’s blood and become harder to kill, but these weren’t trained fighters, these were chafe, and they weren’t all ready to lose their lives to the cause. The victory was a meek one. We’d routed the weakest soldiers, but we’d also given them a lot of information to take back to their master.

  “Nice work,” Zeek said, sidling up to me with his axe still in hand.

  “That sucked so hard,” Ulnyx cursed, pushing against me, desperate to get back into the saddle. I felt the threads of my power and brought them around to wrap his up again. His voice faded from my consciousness, still kicking and screaming.

  “Thank you,” Josette said. “I was growing irritated with his whining.”

  I laughed. I couldn’t help it.

  “Landon, I’m sorry,” Charis said, walking up and putting her hand on my shoulder. “I was only trying to protect you.”

  I put my hand on top of hers, holding it out between us. “It’s okay,” I said. “I know.”

  We lingered like that for a few heartbeats, and then she pulled away. “This group wasn’t intended to win,” she said.

  “I know that too. Sarah could tell her when I arrived, but I bet she wanted to know who I arrived with. Do you think she knows whose side you’re on?”

  Charis shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. She does now.”

  “So, where to?” Zeek asked.

  “St. Patrick’s,” Charis and I both said as one.

  The rift had been located at an old warehouse on the Chelsea waterfront, a two and a half mile walk from the cathedral. It was a cool, calm morning; still early enough that the streets weren’t too crowded with people, but late enough that the sun was beginning to peek above the horizon. We were running, the Templar keeping up remarkably well considering his bulk.

  My thoughts had taken me back to the morning after the events at the Statue, and I related the history to Zeek while we ran. I had returned from the Island and had been wandering the streets of New York, my mind whizzing at a million miles per hour, my heart scalded by the outcome, the Holy Grail clutched in shaking fingers. I had been looking for a place to rest, some relief from the twist and pull of Ulnyx and Josette on my soul, a respite from the guilt and sadness. I had wandered back towards the Waldorf, and had landed on the steps of St. Patrick’s.

  It was there that I had collected myself for the first time, gaining a semblance of lucidity that had led to inspiration. It may have seemed counter-productive to have stashed the Holy Grail in a place like St. Patrick’s Cathedral. After all, there was no other place in the Northern Hemisphere that shouted ‘Heaven’ as loudly as the structure. In that moment of verisimilitude, I realized that was what I could count on to keep it safe.

  I had approached the door, but before I could enter I noticed the series of seraphim runes running along each edge of the archway, and I felt the power radiating off of them. I made an effort to step inside, but the pressure was overwhelming, and my body halted mid-step. I focused, pushing back against the runes, and tried again to no avail. This was no way in.

  After circling the structure, trying every door, and enhancing my eyes in order to examine the frame of every window, I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to enter. What was more, I knew from the experience with the demonic runes under the Statue that if the goal had only been to keep demons out, I would have felt the pressure but have been able to enter. The fact that I couldn’t meant the scripture was blocking all Divine.

  “But if you couldn’t go in, how did you get the Grail inside?” Zeek asked between huffs of air.

  “I had to find someone else who could. A mortal.” I had known exactly who to go to. A priest in a small church near the Belmont. The one who had given me the holy water to heal Josette. He knew enough about the Divine to accept my story, and while he had been less than thrilled to see me again, it hadn’t taken too much effort to bring him around to my way of seeing things. I had helped him sneak into the building, and he had hid a glamoured Grail. I didn’t know where, but he had promised that it would be safe, sure as he had seen a leprechaun.

  “It was a good idea,” Charis said. “The cathedrals were built for the mortal worship of God, free and safe from Divine intervention. It was also close enough for you to keep an eye on it, and sneaky enough that it would have taken quite a while for any Divine to figure it out. It isn’t your fault Sarah ripped it out of you.”

  Literally. The choice of words brought the pain back. I winced and shook it off.

  “I get that,” Zeek said. “But how come they haven’t gotten to it yet? Isn’t Sarah a mortal?”

  “Yes, but I couldn’t tell her exactly where the Grail was, because I don’t know. She’s probably still in there, rooting through the Cardinal’s drawers.”

  When we reached St. Patrick’s, I found out how wrong I had been. The cathedral rested heavily in the morning sunlight, at first glance a peaceful vision of the strength and power of religion and faith. That was until my eyes settled lower on the structure, on the dozens of men and women who had fallen chaotically across the steps.

  “No,” Josette cried out in my mind, sharply enough to force me to a knee.

  Zeek knelt down beside one of the people, a young woman with long red hair. He put his hand to her neck and shook his head. “Dead,” he said.

  “They’re all dead,” Charis confirmed. “But they’re still warm.”

  I got back to my feet and looked up. The door to the cathedral was hanging open, only silent darkness beyond. I fought back against the anger that was creeping up my spine, refusing to believe what I knew was true. I climbed the steps so that I could see inside.

  Sunlight streamed in weakly through the stained glass windows, casting an eerie light on the ransacked interior of the church. Pews had been thrown aside, the floor had been dug into, the statues smashed. It would have taken an army to do so much damage in so little time. An army that had been decommissioned once they were no longer needed. Still warm. We hadn’t missed them by much.

  “How could she do this?” Josette asked, her voice raw. “I know Izak raised her with kindness. I know he would never have taught her this.”

  I could have kicked myself. She did it because she knew we were getting close; that her time was running out. We had been wasting our time fighting Rebecca’s minions while she had Commanded regular men and women to go into the cathedral and find the Grail. Against their will she had made them defile the house of God until they found what she wanted. Once they had, she had killed them. Each and every one of them.

  “How could they die?” Zeek asked. “There isn’t a scratch on them.”

  “She was Commanding them,” Charis said. “She probably told them to stop breathing.”

  The world started spinning, my emotions climbing their way back from the depths where I had learned to contain them. More and more they had been finding their way out, escaping the prison I had constructed to hold back the torture of loss and betrayal, but now they burst free in an explosion of guilt, anger, sadness, disappointment, and fear.

  “Sarah,” I shouted, focusing my energy on the word, casting it upwards into the sky and downwards into the dirt. The power of it was a shockwave that sent the air flowing out around me, pushing over the corpses and shaking the world. In my mind, I felt a recoil, a coolness that I hadn’t noticed before. She had heard me, and fled.

  “She has the Grail, and we don’t know where they are, or where they’re going,” Zeek said.

  Charis walked over and put her arms around me, pulling me down to bring her face level with mine. “Landon?”

  I hadn’t realized I was crying until I tried to look at her through tear-coated eyes. “I don’t know if I can save her,” I said in a whisper. “I don’t know if I can kill her.”

  She cupped my face in her hand, her eyes fierce. “You can save her,” she insisted. She looked down. “If you can’t, I’ll kill her. We can’t let them free the Beast. I know you care for her, but she’s still only one person.”

  “Landon, she’s right,” Josette said, her words heavy. “If she has lost her way and we cannot help her find it, there is no other choice. We cannot sacrifice everything.”

  I took a deep breath and looked around at the bodies, taking in each face, remembering them all. This would be the fate of every man, woman, and child if the Beast were set loose. Used up and tossed away.

  “They have the Grail. Let’s hope we can get to the Bible first,” I said. “Strength in numbers. We need to find Obi. I think I know how.”

  Chapter 22

  Rachel’s office was downtown, but her home was on the upper west side, a huge brownstone that was mixed in with the residence of other popular New York dignitaries. I had stayed there for a couple of weeks a few years ago, living in the high class of a wealthy Manhattanite while I poured my heart out to her about everything and anything. I had hoped the exercise would have been cathartic, and she had done her best to listen and offer comfort, but in the end I had come away with the understanding that I was powerless against the true undercurrents of the Divine existence.

  It was that realization that had started me down the path that Charis had shown me, so it seemed fitting that the same path had led me right back to Rachel’s door. If only it could have been under better circumstances.

  Rachel’s housekeeper Celia was the one who answered it, pulling it open just enough to peek out at us. When she saw me, she smiled and opened the door the rest of the way.

  “Landon,” she said, coming out onto the steps and giving me a huge bear hug. Celia’s build and attitude were more appropriate on a linebacker, but she had the heart and soul to be anybody’s grandmother. Her white hair was pulled back in a short ponytail, and she was dressed in a simple black maid’s uniform. She had been with Rachel for over twenty years, and had been nothing but warm and kind to me, and to anyone I had ever seen her meet. Even though she was Awake, and knew exactly what I was. She told me that the way she saw it, the only way to end any disagreement was through kindness. I had tried picturing myself hugging a fire demon, and wished I could have agreed.