Isaac

My body felt stiff, my vision locked in a haze. I struggled to open my eyes, and what I saw in front of me begged me to get up. With my muscles tense, the simple task was harder than it sounded. It wasn’t until a half a minute later did I truly start to get acclimated with where I was, and remembering how I got here.

“Ava…” I whispered, my voice torn and dry. The columns of black bars across me finally stopped dancing in my eyes, and soon, I realized that I was in fact tossed into an underground church dungeon.

“Hello?!” I called out when I got up on my feet. “Hello!?!”

It was fairly dark, hints here and there of light bouncing off the forked corridor barely doing much in lighting my view. The fact that my echo stretched far beyond the stone walls also meant that this dungeon was massive, and the smell of sulfur and blood meant that I wasn’t the first demon on their menu. Someone had died here recently, too many different bodies to count. All of a sudden, my sense of smell sharpened up, and I was able to catch scents yards away from my cell.

I was scared, hungry, and wet—wet?

Drawing my arm up to my nose, I took a whiff of what was on my skin, the floral and vaguely sweet smell foreign to me. Suddenly I was showered, a sprinkler over my head pouring on me. Freaking out, I winced, shielding my face from a possible interrogation weapon. But when I realized I wasn’t being bathed in acid, I opened my eyes and saw Ava standing in front of my cell.

“Holy water,” she clarified in a faint whisper.

“Boy, you sure are light footed,” I said cheekily, wiping the water from my eyes and giving her a skeptical look. “Is this your idea of hospitality?”

“I’m sorry, Isaac. My brother refuses to listen to reason.”

The sprinkler turned off, and I was finally able to walk closer to her. I grabbed the steel bars and looked at her dead center, the expression on her face tight.

“You didn’t burn…”

“Why would I?” I asked, shaking my hair off like a wet dog. “You said this was only holy water, right? Unless, holy water burns demons?” I narrowed my eyes on her. “You think I’m a demon, too?”

“Please Isaac, keep your voice low. I don’t want anyone to hear us. My brother left a while ago. I don’t know where. And I don’t know when he’ll come back. He wanted you to be awake before he proceeded.”

“Proceeded to do what? Hack me into pieces?”

“I won’t let that happen!” she bellowed, pulling a ring of keys from her pocket and trying to unlock my cell. She fiddled with one, and had about two dozen left to go. I looked down at her as she struggled to set me free, her nervousness making her miss the hole to the tumbler.

“You need to relax.”

“I’m trying!” she squeaked.

“You must be really scared of him. But something tells me it should be the other way around.”

She paused, her grip on the keys getting tighter.

“What are you really? The dickbag called you mother. Are you a priestess?”

“I am…”

“He isn’t on your level, though, is he? I was getting a different vibe off of him.”

“No, he isn’t. But, he is still my older brother.”

“Yeah? Well, your older brother is a piece of work. Is it customary for him to treat his guests like this? Or is this a sibling thing? The guy is a total nutcase if he thinks that demons are actually real.”

“Please, stop talking. I don’t want anyone to hear that you’re awake,” she said, continuing to test the keys.

“Why did you have me believing you were a nun?”

“Because… it’s easier that way. Most don’t treat me as a priestess, anyway.”

“So you assert your authority.”

“What does it matter, Isaac?” She sulked. “In the end, this will all be pointless.”

“What do you mean?”

“Never mind. Just hang on. I’ll get you out of here.”

“I think not—” a voice from behind her said. Ava jerked her head back to see a man in a white robe with gold trims standing with a lantern in his hand, his other tucked along his back.

He was no younger than 40, with thick bushy hair on the sides and none on the top. His droopy eyes zeroed in on Ava, paying me little attention.

He smiled cynically at her. “Brother Fitzgerald was right. You aren’t to be trusted with these low bred demons.” He stepped closer, his gait intimidating Ava. “What is it about this one that makes you lose all sense of yourself? Did you forget that you are a woman of the church? Do you need me to remind you of that fact?!” he seethed, snapping his arm away from his back to reveal a long whip. He slashed at Ava, the priestess curling up at the sting of his weapon striking her left shoulder.

“What the hell?!” I growled. “What’s wrong with you? How can you hit a girl like that?!”

“A girl? This is no mere girl! This is a slut! A demon loving whore!” he grunted, giving her another whip. “Day in and day out, she stands to defend your kind! I can’t seem to wrap my head around any of it, for someone so god loving to shed tears for the wicked!”

“Father Ludvick, please stop!” Ava pleaded.

“I am ashamed to call you my acolyte!”

“Fuck off, nutjob! Leave her alone!” I growled, my grip along the bars heating up.

“You must repent! Purge your spirit of sin! Call out for forgiveness!” the bastard pressed on, continuing to whip Ava even after she started to shed blood. The clothes on her back were torn in strips, this cross-loving bigot making the rag inside me seep through.

“I said STOP IT!” The bass in my cry turned his head toward me. He froze, the shocked expression on his face quickly turning into fear. Gold letterings on the surface of the bars began to light up the hotter they got, the strength building up inside me ready to bend them and break free to save Ava.

“Impossible!” he shuddered, dropping the whip from his hand. “That Enochian barricade spell is unbreakable!” He took a step back while Ava turned her head to glance at me. Her eyes went wide and she gasped, the fear on her face not halfway as convincing as her assailant’s. “Red piercing eyes, negating Enochian magic… my god, you must be one of them. A prince of hell!”

The bars snapped, my target noticing and making a run for it. I charged at him with one bar and dropped the other. He was slow, either that, or I became incredibly fast. Because it didn’t take me a fraction of a second to reach him down the hall. I struck him on the back like he did Ava, and sent him flying against the stone wall. I heard his bones snapping, his shoulder blade crushed from my insane strength. I knew I could have done far worse, because I held back a lot of my power when I’d attacked him.

He whimpered and begged for mercy, and he dropped down, cradling his broken shoulder. Tears streaked his hideous face, and even though I had my hand cocked over my head for another wallop, I couldn’t kill him. He wasn’t a true demon, only a shitty human.

I twisted my face at him as my hand tremored. The demon inside me was telling me to finish him off anyway, but I had control. I wasn’t going to slip up like I did with that girl from the pizzeria. “GO!” I barked at him, and he scrambled on his feet. Although he didn’t make it five steps before he stopped.

It was so abrupt. In the slight darkness, I saw his arms falling to his side, and his head tipped over. He looked limp, before his body suddenly dropped on the ground.

When he collapsed, I got a good view of what happened. Wren was standing there with a bloody blade in her hand. She’d killed Father Ludvick…

“You should have wasted him,” she said with an eerie shine in her eyes. “He might not have been a demon, but he was a tool working for angels. Enochian, angel magic. Just one of many weapons those winged bastards use to hunt demons.” She looked up at me as if she were impressed. “You look different.”

“Isaac…” Ava mumbled, and I pivoted around and rushed to her.

“Ava, are you all right?” I said, crouching to her level.

She gave me a sweet smile and nodded. “Thank you.”

“Who the hell is she?” Wren asked, with a hand on her hips and a hint of jealous in her voice.

“She’s Ava Fitzgerald. Mother Ava Fitzgerald. She’s a priestess.”

“A New Apostle Church Priestess?” Wren said. “Then you’re next on the list.” Wren snapped her blade and walked toward us.

“Wait, what?” I choked. “Wren, she isn’t dangerous!”

“Isaac, you did well by breaking that douchebag’s bones. Don’t kill your streak by showing pity to the enemy.”

“Wren, you’re not offing Ava!”

“The hell I am!”

I was ready to fight my woman to protect this priestess. Wren might not be able to see it, but she could be the answer to saving Sasha. But as soon as I got up on my feet to defend her, the ground started to shake. Wren’s head jerked up, her focus turned to the rumbling around us.

“It’s an angel! We need to get out of here, now!”

“An angel?”

“They have a spell protecting this building. In this church, I am unable to use my specialties. I’m pretty much useless unless we can get the hell out of here.”

“Lead the way,” I said, helping Ava up on my shoulders. I turned to her and asked, “Can you walk?”

“Yes. I’ll manage,” she muttered, trying to hide the pain on her face. I scooped her up and cradled her in my arms, following Wren outside of the dungeon, and to the field where I first met Ava.

“Where are the others?” I asked Wren.

“It’s only me,” she said, turning over her shoulder to see me carrying Ava. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Wren, this isn’t your call. Look, she’s hurt!”

“And she’ll be dead in a minute!”

“I suggest you put the girl down, demon,” a smooth voice begged me to turn right, a tall man with the same robe Ludvick had on but in black standing across from us. He had short and styled black hair, thin rectangular glasses, and a build to him that was louder than most holy men I’d seen. He was no older than 40, could even be a bit younger. Wren immediately readied her defense at the sight of something moving behind him. When a pair of black wings stretched out, I bit down on my jaw.

An angel…