Page 55 of Prayer of the Damned
He seems to be deliberating what to say and how to react. He just stares at me sternly, and I could swear I see the rage igniting in his eyes. Again there’s that flash of blue in his left eye, and a sweet smell fills the office.
“Bar…” My lips blurt out his name as he approaches, grabbing my wrists and raising my arms over my head. His grip tightens and I let out a grunt of pain.
The air between us is charged, that sweet smell thickens and my eyes roll back. Where the Hell is that smell coming from? My body thrums with pain, pleading me to take whatever he hasthat’s arousing me so much, whether he wants it or not. I want to bring my nose to his neck, I think it’s the source of the madness whispering to me, but when I try to approach the vein pulsing in his neck Dr. Abano blocks my access, and presses his lips to mine.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Bartimaeus
Have you ever had a nightmare you couldn’t wake from? The kind seeping into every crack in your heart, finding the hidden doubts in the darkest corners, and pulling them out to confront you with your worst fears?
That’s what hit me the moment Bellcolor Fermi entered the ballroom during the mixer. The black dress she was wearing was so tight I could see her nipples stiffen the moment she winked at me. Dear God, it’s like they’re jutting out just for me. I had to grab the table next to me to keep from collapsing where I stood. I had to remind myself that she was damned.The Queen of the Damned, fuck.
But her power managed to knock me off-balance, her ability to boil my cursed blood. For a moment I thought I’d go mad. I needed confession, I needed to pray, I had to wash myself with a bucket of holy water. Something, anything, before she defiles me with her impurity.
I look over those present and note that all the demons are responding to her as I am. They’re full of awe and fear,and she even seems to be enjoying the attention. Any remnant of the lanky girl has evaporated like it never existed. I’m fighting something greater than me. God has tasked me with an impossible mission, and he’s testing me. Am I strong enough to withstand the temptation to taste her impurity? The need to cross myself intensifies, but I mustn’t expose myself, not in a hall full of demons.
When she pulls a demon after her who looks like he’s in seventh heaven, I know it’s my chance to eliminate the Queen of the Damned. I find her growling like an unrestrained beast over the poor demon, and I can practically smell her need between her legs, driving me mad and threatening to consume me. The blood in my veins starts bubbling with… envy? Fuck, no. I mustn’t get confused. It’s the filthy blood in my veins playing with my emotions. It’s loathing, and nothing more.
I pull her off the demon’s dying body, place my hand on his head and whisper the prayer: “TheLordshall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.” The damned one doesn’t care that she’s leaving a trail of evidence behind her, and I must deal with the refuse she leaves behind.
I drag her with me to my office, far from the nest of demons that’s too close by, and might prevent me from putting my plan into action. I open the door and shove her in. Her eyes widen with expectation, and God help me, the Devil is toying with me. My body is so aroused that I feel like hellfire is about to burn me to ash any moment. I grab her wrists and slam her into the nearby bookshelf. Who does she think she is?
“Bar…” Her lips part lustfully as she blurts out my name, and my filthy mind imagines her lips around my stiff cock, and how she’ll look as she screams my name.
In the name of all that’s holy… I can’t let Satan win.
I reach out for the sacred dagger hidden between the books on the shelf above her head, but I feel her body press up againstme. I take a deep breath, and my lungs fill with her intoxicating scent. What the hell is that? My blood is surging and bubbling in response to her closeness. I notice her fangs getting longer as she opens her mouth. The damned one intends to take my blood. Fuck, she just practically drained that poor demon and her body still isn’t satiated. I have to stop her.
Before she reaches my neck, I press my lips to hers. My dead body is flooded with a power so shocking that I almost give in to the lust she awakens in me.
I must. not. give. in. I grab the sacred dagger and stab her in the back.
Her eyes widen, and I almost drown in their gleaming whiteness. Her pupils shrink into strips so narrow they look like devilish snake eyes. I feel my body freeze, and realize the dagger hasn’t pierced her skin. I knew she was invulnerable, but the dagger has the strength to nullify any Satanic power. Unlessher power doesn’t come from the Devil alone.
She swings her arm and sends my body hurling to the other side of the office. My back slams against the door and the air is knocked out of my lungs all at once. I see only blackness, and realize I’ve taken quite a blow to the head. I try to blink and push away the blindness, and vertigo overwhelms me. I hear her walking towards me, and my blood freezes in my veins. She’ll destroy me on the spot. It’s over. I hear her breathing as she bends over me and presses her lips to my ear.
“Well, well, you didn’t think it’d be that easy, did you?” She clucks her tongue and I tremble at her proximity. I want to answer, I want to fight back against her intolerable arrogance, but my body won’t respond to my commands. She’s right, I should’ve prepared for the worst. I’ve failed. She gets to her feet and effortlessly moves me aside to open the door, like I were a completely unimportant sack of potatoes. “If you can’t complete the mission I’ve given you, you’ll be useless to me too.”
The door slams, shaking the walls of my office.
Her kiss has shaken the walls of my heart.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Bartimaeus
Iused to look forward to purification. It was the highlight of every month for me, on the new moon. Confession, baptism in holy water, taking Communion, and praying to the King of Kings. But this time? I’ve honestly forgotten why I prayed for it to come.
For me to step on sacred ground, they had to drain the impure blood out of my body. But even after the draining, the blood had already had an irreversible effect on my body, and worse, my soul. I was unable to confess my sins. The list was too long, and I was afraid of voicing all the filthy thoughts of Bellcolor Fermi running through my mind. I feared that voicing them would be acknowledging them. And I refused to believe there was any tainted part of me that longed for her. And because I wasn’t honest in confession, the holy water burned my skin and my prayer left a bitter taste in my mouth. It would seem that sanctity had abandoned me.
Because I’d failed to carry out their previous plan, the Pope and all the Cardinals gathered to discuss formulating a new plan.
The sacred dagger should have stripped her of her demonic power, but it seems that this time she’d returned to the realm of Adam with incalculably powerful defensive and healing powers.
“She stole them!” Cardinal Josef shouted.
“You’re suggesting she managed to deceive God Almighty? Accursed heresy!” Cardinal Eduardo replied, slamming his fist onto the table.
