able to open a doorway on to this plane.”
“And you, uh, ‘harvested’ these souls.”
“Like you said, my victims have all been evil.” Darius looked proud. “I am the Soul Eater.”
“So, what do you do with the souls once you get them?”
“I cannot,” said Darius, “hold onto them. I am merely the facilitator of them leaving the body they formerly inhabited. As you no doubt noticed when you unclasped the locks of the sacred vat, it smelled revolting.”
“That’s one word I might use to describe it.”
“It is almost one hundred years worth of vomit, I’m afraid.”
“One hundred years? I thought you’ve been around for eons.”
“I have.” Darius turned away. “Success, however, has only been a recent occurrence in my existence.”
Curran frowned. What did he mean? Had someone else battled him in the past? Had someone else managed to destroy his vat before? How had they done it? Maybe he could be beaten. Curran cleared his mind, aware that the demon could see into it.
“You vomit into that vat and store it?”
“It’s not vomit in the sense that you know it, although it smells just as bad. This vat contains the souls of everyone I’ve killed over the past century.”
“In other words, the evil you ‘harvested.’”
“Exactly.”
“Some hobby you got there.”
Curran tested the ropes again by flexing his hands, hoping Darius wouldn’t notice. “Well, tell me this: if you needed to get evil souls, why have you only killed in the United States? Are you saying we have a monopoly on evil people here?”
“Not at all. Evil spreads itself equally throughout the world, just as good does. Remember the balance we spoke of.” He smiled again. “I spent time in other regions of the world. I harvested there and eventually it was time to come to the United States.”
Curran kept flexing his wrists. Was there some give back there? “So, where is Lauren? Or did you kill her already?”
“Kill her? Me?” Darius shook his head. “I would not presume to do such a thing. As I said, her role in this whole process is very important.”
“Is it?”
“Oh yes.” Darius walked back to the sarcophagus. “You see, while the focus of evil souls is one of the largest components of the process, there is another that is almost as important.”
“That being?”
“The host body.”
“Host?”
“It was written thousands of years ago that the host body must be one who is inherently good. They must have repeatedly demonstrated their ability to refrain from evil actions, though they may have indeed been tainted by it in their past. Perhaps they have been scarred. Perhaps they were brutalized in some fashion. And yet, at every turn they are able to rise above the temptation to do evil back, to get any sort of revenge. They adhere to the principles of good no matter what.”
“In other words, they’re role models for the rest of us.”
“For the rest of you,” spat Darius. “I myself would have no cause to consider them as a role model.”
“You’ve made that abundantly clear.”
“Have I? Good.” Darius patted the sarcophagus. “Your friend Lauren. Your…lover, as she became, is one of the most benevolent souls in the world.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
“I am about to,” said Darius. He crossed the room and unclasped one of the seals on the vat.
Curran frowned. “That’s gonna stink this place up to high heaven.”
“Tragically, yes, but it will only be temporary.”
“Temporary?” Curran found it difficult to believe fermented vomit would smell only for a short time.
“Long enough to pour the contents out into the sarcophagus.”
“Why would you do that?”
“You wanted to know what I’ve done with Lauren.”
Curran felt his stomach churn. “Yeah.”
“She is in the sarcophagus.”
“Still?”
“You saw her when you first came in, yes?”
“Yeah.”
“Before you realized I’d simply thrown my voice so you would sneak down here and I could come up behind you and disable you.”
Curran sighed. “Right.”
“You did better on the stairs, by the way, than I thought you would. Especially since the third one from the bottom always creaks a terrible amount.”
“I’m thrilled you approve.”
Darius unclasped the other seal. “Honestly, the smell is pretty nasty. But like I said, it will be over fairly quickly once I start the ceremony.”
“Let Lauren go.”
“I can’t do that, Curran.”
“Let me take her place.”
Darius laughed. “You can’t be serious. Your soul is as gray as they come. There is some good in you but there is also some evil. You’ve been scarred before and you hid your resentment deep down there, never working through it. You harbor animosity toward people who have crossed you in the past. You have a lot of issues, Curran.”
“Yeah, so?”
“Your soul is not suitable.”
“And Lauren’s is.”
“Oh yes. Like I started to say before, the evil souls I have gathered must be allowed to inhabit the body of a benevolent soul. In that environment, the evil souls will feast on the goodness of the host body, a sort of spiritual feast, and at that point where the last vestige of good is destroyed, then and only then can Satan come back and inhabit the body.”
“You’re telling me that Satan will be walking around in Lauren’s body?”
“Exactly.”
Curran frowned. “So why am I still alive? Why not just kill me now?”
“Ah, yes, well, you too play an important role in all of this.”
“Yeah?”
“In much the same manner that the evil souls will feast upon the good soul, so too will the physical need nourishing.”
“Nourishing.”
“Yes, my dear homicide detective. You see, you are the first meal that Satan will enjoy when he finally enters this plane. You are to be his midnight snack.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Curran considered this. What the hell, he thought, I never believed I’d come through safe and sound. He looked at Darius who seemed to want to milk the moment.
“What’d you use on Lauren, drugs?”
Darius sniffed. “Please. I wouldn’t presume to contaminate her blood with so earthly a creation as
